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wales want rugby league training wales could follow england s lead by training with a rugby league club. england have already had a three-day session with leeds rhinos and wales are thought to be interested in a similar clinic with rivals st helens. saints coach ian millward has given his approval but if it does happen it is unlikely to be this season. saints have a week s training in portugal next week while wales will play england in the opening six nations match on 5 february. we have had an approach from wales confirmed a saints spokesman. it s in the very early stages but it is something we are giving serious consideration to. st helens who are proud of their welsh connections are obvious partners for the welsh rugby union despite a spat in 2001 over the collapse of kieron cunningham s proposed £500 000 move to union side swansea. a similar cross-code deal that took iestyn harris from leeds to cardiff in 2001 did go through before the talented stand-off returned to the 13-man code with bradford bulls. kel coslett who famously moved from wales to league in the 1960s is currently saints football manager while clive griffiths - wales defensive coach - is a former st helens player and is thought to be the man behind the latest initiative. scott gibbs the former wales and lions centre played for st helens from 1994-96 and was in the challenge cup-winning team at wembley in 1996.

Sports

china aviation seeks rescue deal scandal-hit jet fuel supplier china aviation oil has offered to repay its creditors $220m (£117m) of the $550m it lost on trading in oil futures. the firm said it hoped to pay $100m now and another $120m over eight years. with assets of $200m and liabilities totalling $648m it needs creditors backing for the offer to avoid going into bankruptcy. the trading scandal is the biggest to hit singapore since the $1.2bn collapse of barings bank in 1995. chen jiulin chief executive of china aviation oil (cao) was arrested by at changi airport by singapore police on 8 december. he was returning from china where he had headed when cao announced its trading debacle in late-november. the firm had been betting heavily on a fall in the price of oil during october but prices rose sharply instead. among the creditors whose backing cao needs for its restructuring plan are banking giants such as barclay s capital and sumitomo mitsui as well as south korean firm sk energy. of the immediate payment the firm - china s biggest jet fuel supplier - said it would be paying $30m out of its own resources. the rest would come from its parent company china aviation oil holding company in beijing. the holding company owned by the chinese government holds most of cao s singapore-listed shares. it cut its holding from 75% to 60% on 20 october.

Business

markets signal brazilian recovery the brazilian stock market has risen to a record high as investors display growing confidence in the durability of the country s economic recovery. the main bovespa index on the sao paolo stock exchange closed at 24 997 points on friday topping the previous record market close reached the previous day. the market s buoyancy reflects optimism about the brazilian economy which could grow by as much as 4.5% in 2004. brazil is recovering from last year s recession - its worst in a decade. economic output declined 0.2% in 2003 and president luiz inacio lula da silva - elected as brazil s first working-class president in 2002 - was strongly criticised for pursuing a hardline economic policy. investors have praised his handling of the economy as foreign investment has risen unemployment has fallen and inflation has been brought under control. analysts believe the stock market will rise above the 25 000 mark for the first time before too long. there should be more space for gains until the end of the year somewhere up to 27 000 points said paschoal tadeu buonomo head of equities trading at brokers tov. brazil s currency the real also rose to its highest level against the dollar in more than two years on friday. although interest rates still stand at a punitive 17.25% inflation has fallen from 9% to 7% while exports are booming particularly of agricultural products. for the first time in decades we have all three economic policy pillars in line during a recovery finance minister antonio palocci told the associated press news agency. government accounts are in surplus we have a current account surplus and inflation is under control. investors were deeply suspicious of president da silva a former trade union leader who campaigned on a programme of extensive land redistribution and a large rise in the minimum wage. however mr da silva has stuck to an orthodox monetary policy inherited from his predecessor even in the face of last year s economic crisis. this has earned him the disapproval of rural farm workers thousands of whom who took to the streets of brasilia on thursday to protest against government policies. president da silva has defended his policies arguing that brazil cannot afford to continue the cycle of boom and bust which afflicted it in recent decades.

Business

tough rules for ringtone sellers firms that flout rules on how ringtones and other mobile extras are sold could be cut off from all uk phone networks. the rules allow offenders to be cut off if they do not let consumers know exactly what they get for their money and how to turn off the services. the first month under the new rules has seen at least ten firms suspended while they clean up the way they work. the rules have been brought in to ensure that the problems plaguing net users do not spread to mobile phones. in the last couple of years ringtones wallpapers screensavers and lots of other extras for phones have become hugely popular. but fierce competition is making it difficult for firms to get their wares in front of consumers said jeremy flynn head of third party services at vodafone. if you are not on the operator s portal you are going to have quite heavy marketing costs because it s a problem of how people discover your services he said. to combat this many ringtone and other mobile content sellers started using a new tactic to squeeze more cash out of customers. this tactic involved signing people up for a subscription to give them for instance several ringtones per week or month instead of the single track they thought they were getting. mr flynn said that the move to using subscriptions happened over the space of a few weeks at the end of 2004. websites such as grumbletext.co.uk started getting reports from customers who were racking up large bills for phone content they did not know they had signed up for. what made us uncomfortable was that these services were not being marketed transparently said mr flynn. people did not know they were being offered a subscription service. we saw potential for substantial consumer harm here he added. the swift adoption of subscription services led to the creation of a new code of conduct for firms that want to sell content for mobile phones. the drafting of the new rules was led by the mobile entertainment forum and the uk s phone firms. everyone is required to conform to this code of conduct said andrew bud regulatory head of the mef and executive chairman of messaging firm mblox. it s all about transparency he said. consumers have to be told what they have got themselves into and how to get out of it. the consumer has a right to be protected he said. christian harris partnership manager of mobile content firm zed said the new system was essential if consumers were to trust companies that sell ringtones and other downloads. the groundrules must be applied across the whole industry and if that s done effectively we will see the cowboys driven out he said. the new rules came in to force on 15 january and the first month under the new regime has seen many firms cautioned for not honouring them. some have been told to revamp websites so customers know what they get for their money and what they are signing up for said mr flynn. also said mr flynn vodafone has briefly cut off between eight and ten content sellers flouting the rules. we have quite draconian contracts with firms he said. we do not have to say why. we can just cut them off. under the rules consumers must be able to switch off the services by using a universal stop command sent via text message. he said the system had been designed to limit how much a consumer will pay if they inadvertently signed up for a service. the mobile is so personal that people really resent the abuse of what is effectively part of their personality said mr flynn.

Science_and_Techology

bbc poll indicates economic gloom citizens in a majority of nations surveyed in a bbc world service poll believe the world economy is worsening. most respondents also said their national economy was getting worse. but when asked about their own family s financial outlook a majority in 14 countries said they were positive about the future. almost 23 000 people in 22 countries were questioned for the poll which was mostly conducted before the asian tsunami disaster. the poll found that a majority or plurality of people in 13 countries believed the economy was going downhill compared with respondents in nine countries who believed it was improving. those surveyed in three countries were split. in percentage terms an average of 44% of respondents in each country said the world economy was getting worse compared to 34% who said it was improving. similarly 48% were pessimistic about their national economy while 41% were optimistic. and 47% saw their family s economic conditions improving as against 36% who said they were getting worse. the poll of 22 953 people was conducted by the international polling firm globescan together with the program on international policy attitudes (pipa) at the university of maryland. while the world economy has picked up from difficult times just a few years ago people seem to not have fully absorbed this development though they are personally experiencing its effects said pipa director steven kull. people around the world are saying: i m ok but the world isn t . there may be a perception that war terrorism and religious and political divisions are making the world a worse place even though that has not so far been reflected in global economic performance says the bbc s elizabeth blunt. the countries where people were most optimistic both for the world and for their own families were two fast-growing developing economies china and india followed by indonesia. china has seen two decades of blistering economic growth which has led to wealth creation on a huge scale says the bbc s louisa lim in beijing. but the results also may reflect the untrammelled confidence of people who are subject to endless government propaganda about their country s rosy economic future our correspondent says. south korea was the most pessimistic while respondents in italy and mexico were also quite gloomy. the bbc s david willey in rome says one reason for that result is the changeover from the lira to the euro in 2001 which is widely viewed as the biggest reason why their wages and salaries are worth less than they used to be. the philippines was among the most upbeat countries on prospects for respondents families but one of the most pessimistic about the world economy. pipa conducted the poll from 15 november 2004 to 3 january 2005 across 22 countries in face-to-face or telephone interviews. the interviews took place between 15 november 2004 and 5 january 2005. the margin of error is between 2.5 and 4 points depending on the country. in eight of the countries the sample was limited to major metropolitan areas.

Business

broadband set to revolutionise tv bt is starting its push into television with plans to offer tv over broadband. as a telecoms company bt is moving to a content distribution strategy andrew burke chief of bt s new entertainment unit told the iptv world forum. we want to be an entertainment facilitator he said on the opening day of the london conference. the bbc is also trialling a service to play programmes over the net and has not ruled out offering it to non-licence fee payers overseas. the corporation s interactive media player (imp) is its first foray into broadband tv - known as iptv (internet protocol tv). we see several opportunities for delivering the type of content that normally broadcasters find it difficult to get to viewers said bt s andrew burke. with more people on broadband and connection speeds increasing telcos around the world are looking for new ways to make money from it. increased competition between net service providers encouraged by ofcom has eroded bt s position in the market. it is looking for a good return on its investment in the technology which has made broadband over adsl a reality. it also sees delivering tv over broadband as a way of getting high-definition (hd) content to people sooner than they will be able to get it through conventional regular broadcasts. the bbc s imp has just finished successful technical trials and is set for much larger consumer trials later in 2005. before it officially launches the bbc must show the government how it offers value for money. delivering programmes over broadband offers clear public value says the bbc because it gives people more control and more choice. iptv is a similar idea to voip services like skype. both use broadband net connections to carry information like video and voice in packets of data instead of conventional means. since it uses internet technology iptv could mean more choice of programmes more more interactivity tailored programming and more localised content outside of conventional satellite digital cable and terrestrial broadcasts. it is all part of the larger changing tv technology landscape and like personal digital video recorders (pvrs) gives people much more control over tv. broadcasters see iptv and pvrs as both as a threat and an opportunity. the bbc recognises that tv over broadband is a reality and aims to innovate with it said rahul chakkara controller of bbci s 24/7 interactive tv services. the imp is based on peer-to-peer technology and lets people download programmes the bbc owns the rights to for up to seven days after broadcast. iptv enables us to take back that programme to our audience at different times said mr chakkara. so we can tell our audience that that programme they paid for [via the licence fee] they can access it any time they want. it helps said mr burke that people are more au fait with terms like digital interactive now that digital tv reaches more than 56% of uk homes. according to benoit joly from broadband telecoms firm thales 30% of europe cannot get satellite tv or digital tv. they could get iptv though. analysts say that iptv will account for 10% of the digital tv market in europe alone by the end of the decade. what needs to happen now agree analysts is for connection speeds to be bumped up to handle the service; 20mbps connections would be ideal. bt does not see itself as a broadcaster of iptv services rather as an enabler said mr burke. its strategy is a hybrid approach he explained where over-the-air conventional broadcasts are supplemented with content over broadband. initially appealing to niche markets like sports fans it will widen out. but iptv could be used for home-monitoring pet cams localised news services and local authority tv too says bt. it even suggests that it could target those households in the uk that do not own a computer 40% of the country. broadband to them would not be about data and the net - that could come later for them - but about cheap phone calls and more choice of tv programmes. home choice already offers 10 000 hours of shows and channels delivered over broadband to homes in london. with a broadband net subscription you can also get your tv and phone service. through content deals and partnerships it offers satellite as well as terrestrial channels and bespoke channels based on what viewers pick and choose from its catalogues. it aims to expand nationally but is seeing a lot of success with what it offers its 15 000 subscribers now and aims to double uptake as well as reach by the summer. although still at a very early stage iptv is another application for broadband that underlines its growing prominence as a backbone network - another utility like electricity.

Science_and_Techology

domain system opens door to scams a system to make it easier to create website addresses using alphabets like cyrillic could open a back door for scammers a trade body has warned. the internationalised domain names system has been a work in progress for years and has recently been approved by the internet engineering task force. but the uk internet forum (ukif) is concerned that the system will let scammers create fake sites more easily. the problem lies in the computer codes used to represent language. registering names that look like that of legitimate companies but lead users to fake sites designed to steal passwords and credit card details could become a whole lot easier for determined scammers says stephen dyer director of ukif. domain names are the real language addresses of websites rather than their internet protocol address which is a series of numbers. they are used so people can more easily navigate the web. so-called ascii codes are used to represent european languages but for other languages a hybrid of a system called unicode is used. so for example website paypal could now be coded using a mixture of the latin alphabet and the russian alphabet. the resulting domain as displayed to the users would look identical to the real site as a russian a look just like an english a . but the computer code would be different and the site it would lead users to could be a fake. this is more than just a theory. a fake paypal.com has already been registered with net domain giant verisign by someone who has followed the debate around the internationalised domain name (idn) system said mr dyer. as the idea was to prove a point rather than be malicious the fake domain has now been handed back to paypal but it sets a worrying precedent mr dyer said. although the idn problem is well known in technical circles the commercial world is totally unaware how easily their websites can be faked said mr dyer. it is important to alert users that there is a new and invisible and almost undetectable way of diverting them to what looks like a perfectly genuine site he added. there are solutions. for instance browsers could spot domains that use mixed characters and display them in different colours as a warning to users. mr dyer acknowledged that it would be a huge undertaking to update all the world s browsers. another solution to introduce idn-disabled browsers could be a case of throwing out the baby with the bath water he said. centr the council of european national top level domain registries agrees. a rush to introduce idn-disabled browsers into the marketplace is an overly-zealous step that will harm public confidence in idns - a technology that is desperately needed in the non-english speaking world the organisation said in a statement.

Science_and_Techology

attack prompts bush site block the official re-election site of president george w bush is blocking visits from overseas users for security reasons . the blocking began early on monday so those outside the us and trying to view the site got a message saying they are not authorised to view it. but keen net users have shown that the policy is not being very effective. many have found that the site can still be viewed by overseas browsers via several alternative net addresses. the policy of trying to stop overseas visitors viewing the site is thought to have been adopted in response to an attack on the georgewbush.com website. scott stanzel a spokesman for the bush-cheney campaign said: the measure was taken for security reasons. he declined to elaborate any further on the blocking policy. the barring of non-us visitors has led to the campaign being inundated with calls and forced it to make a statement about why the blocking was taking place. in early october a so-called denial of service attack was mounted on the site that bombarded it with data from thousands of pcs. the attack made the site unusable for about five hours. about the same time the web team of the bush-cheney campaign started using the services of a company called akamai that helps websites deal with the ebbs and flows of visitor traffic. akamai uses a web-based tool called edgescape that lets its customers work out where visitors are based. typically this tool is used to ensure that webpages video and images load quickly but it can also be used to block traffic. geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis. readers of the boingboing weblog have found that viewers can still get at the site by using alternative forms of the george w bush domain name. ironically one of the working alternatives is for a supposedly more secure version of the site. there are now at least three working alternative domains for the bush-cheney campaign that let web users outside the us visit the site. the site can also be seen using anonymous proxy services that are based in the us. some web users in canada also report that they can browse the site. the international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by net monitoring firm netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns across many different sites. netcraft said that since the early hours of 25 october attempts to view the site through its monitoring stations in london amsterdam and sydney have failed. by contrast netcraft s four monitoring stations in the us managed to view the site with no problems. data gathered by netcraft on the pattern of traffic to the site shows that the blocking is not the result of another denial of service attack. mike prettejohn netcraft president speculated that the blocking decision might have been taken to cut costs and traffic in the run-up to the election on 2 november. he said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next week. managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays working in the closing days of the election campaign. however simply blocking non-us visitors also means that americans overseas are barred too. most american soldiers stationed overseas will be able to see the site as they use the us military s own portion of the net. akamai declined to comment saying it could not talk about customer websites.

Science_and_Techology

young debut cut short by ginepri fifteen-year-old donald young s first appearance in an atp tennis tournament proved brief as the teenager went out in round one of the san jose open. young shot to the top of the junior world rankings when he won the boys singles at january s australian open. but the wildcard entry was dispatched by fellow american robby ginepri in straight sets 6-2 6-2 in california. despite that he was happy with his tour debut. it was fun. i had my chances but they didn t come through he said. young who beat two players ranked in the top 200 when he was just 14 was only 2-1 down in the first set before losing 10 of the next 13 games. and ginepri - six years older than the youngest player to ever win a junior slam and top the global standings - admitted he was impressed. he s very talented said ginepri. he s got a long future ahead of him. being left-handed he was very quick around the court. his serve is a little deceptive. he came into the net and volleyed better than i thought. earlier south korean hyung-taik lee defeated american jan-michael gambill 6-3 7-6 (7-4). american kevin kim defeated jan hernych of the czech republic 7-5 6-3 canadian qualifier frank dancevic downed american jeff morrison 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-0 and denmark s kenneth carlsen beat irakli labadze of the republic of georgia 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 6-3. top seed andy roddick launches his defence of the title on wednesday against qualifier paul goldstein. second seed andre agassi opens his campaign on tuesday against wildcard bobby reynolds last year s us collegiate champion. agassi has won the san jose five times but his run of three straight titles ended last year when he fell to mardy fish in the semi-finals. fish went on to lose to roddick in the final.

Sports

speak easy plan for media players music and film fans will be able to control their digital media players just by speaking to them under plans in development by two us firms. scansoft and gracenote are developing technology to give people access to their film and music libraries simply by voice control. they want to give people hands-free access to digital music and films in the car or at home or on the move. huge media libraries on some players can make finding single songs hard. voice command-and-control unlocks the potential of devices that can store large digital music collections said ross blanchard vice president of business development for gracenote. these applications will radically change the car entertainment experience allowing drivers to enjoy their entire music collections without ever taking their hands off the steering wheel he added. gracenote provides music library information for millions of different albums for jukeboxes such as apple s itunes. the new technology will be designed so that people can play any individual song or movie out of a collection just by saying its name. users will also be able to request music that fits a mood or an occasion or a film just by saying the actor s name. speech is a natural fit for today s consumer devices particularly in mobile environments said alan schwartz vice president of speechworks a division of scansoft. pairing our voice technologies with gracenote s vast music database will bring the benefits of speech technologies to a host of consumer devices and enable people to access their media in ways they ve never imagined. the two firms did not say if they were developing the technology for languages other than english. users will also be able to get more information on a favourite song they have been listening to by asking: what is this portable players are becoming popular in cars and a number of auto firms are working with apple to device interfaces to control the firm s ipod music player. but with tens of thousands of songs able to be stored on one player voice control would make finding that elusive track by elvis presley much easier. the firms gave no indication about whether the ipod or any other media player were in mind for the use of the voice control technology. the companies estimate that the technology will be available in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Science_and_Techology

pearce keen on succeeding keegan joint assistant boss stuart pearce has admitted he would like to succeed kevin keegan as manager at manchester city. keegan has decided to step down as city manager when his contract comes to an end in 18 months. you don t have to be einstein to realise there will be a manager s job available at a really good club pearce told bbc gmr. i will certainly be applying for it although whether the board deem me good enough to take it i do not know. pearce initially joined city as a player under keegan in 2001 before becoming part of the coaching staff. he was promoted to joint assistant-manager following the departure of arthur cox last summer. the former england defender had a year as player-boss with nottingham forest eight seasons ago but has made no secret of his desire to have another crack at the job. he was linked with the manager s job at oldham and keegan has stated he would not get in the way if pearce wanted to leave. but it now appears pearce is keen to wait for his chance at city. he added: by that time i will have been here for five years so at least they will have had a good look at me and they are aware of my feelings with regard to being kevin s successor. obviously the issue is out of my hands but it is a fantastic job for anybody - i just hope it will be me.

Sports

playstation 3 processor unveiled the cell processor which will drive sony s playstation 3 will run 10-times faster than current pc chips its designers have said. sony ibm and toshiba who have been working on the cell processor for three years unveiled the chip on monday. it is being designed for use in graphics workstations the new playstation console and has been described as a supercomputer on a chip. the chip will run at speeds of greater than 4 ghz the firms said. by comparison rival chip maker intel s fastest processor runs at 3.8 ghz. details of the chip were released at the international solid state circuits conference in san francisco. the new processor is set to ignite a fresh battle between intel and the cell consortium over which processor sits at the centre of digital products. the playstation 3 is expected in 2006 while toshiba plans to incorporate it into high-end televisions next year. ibm has said it will sell a workstation with the chip starting later this year. cell is comprised of several computing engines or cores. a core based on ibm s power architecture controls eight synergistic processing centres. in all they can simultaneously carry out 10 instruction sequences compared with two for current intel chips. later this year intel and advanced micro devices plan to release their own multicore chips which also increase the number of instructions that can be executed at once. the cell s specifications suggest the playstation 3 will offer a significant boost in graphics capabilities but analysts cautioned that not all the features in a product announcement will find their way into systems. any new technology like this has two components said steve kleynhans an analyst with meta group. he said: it has the vision of what it could be because you need the big vision to sell it. then there s the reality of how it s really going to be used which generally is several levels down the chain from there. while the playstation 3 is likely to be the first mass-market product to use cell the chip s designers have said the flexible architecture means that it would be useful for a wide range of applications from servers to mobile phones. initial devices are unlikely to be any smaller than a games console however because the first version of the cell will run hot enough to need a cooling fan. and while marketing speak describes the chip as a supercomputer - it remains significantly slower than the slowest computer on the list of the world s top 500 supercomputers. ibm said cell was os neutral and would support multiple operating systems simultaneously but designers would not confirm if microsoft s windows was among those tested with the chip. if cell is to challenge intel s range of chips in the marketplace it will need to find itself inside pcs which predominantly run using windows.

Science_and_Techology

ask jeeves tips online ad revival ask jeeves has become the third leading online search firm this week to thank a revival in internet advertising for improving fortunes. the firm s revenue nearly tripled in the fourth quarter of 2004 exceeding $86m (£46m). ask jeeves once among the best-known names on the web is now a relatively modest player. its $17m profit for the quarter was dwarfed by the $204m announced by rival google earlier in the week. during the same quarter yahoo earned $187m again tipping a resurgence in online advertising. the trend has taken hold relatively quickly. late last year marketing company doubleclick one of the leading providers of online advertising warned that some or all of its business would have to be put up for sale. but on thursday it announced that a sharp turnaround had brought about an unexpected increase in profits. neither ask jeeves nor doubleclick thrilled investors with their profit news however. in both cases their shares fell by some 4%. analysts attributed the falls to excessive expectations in some quarters fuelled by the dramatic outperformance of google on tuesday.

Business

ad firm wpp s profits surge 15% uk advertising giant wpp has posted larger-than-expected annual profits and predicted that it will outperform the market in 2005. pre-tax profits rose 15% from a year ago to reach £546m ($1.04bn) ahead of average analysts forecasts of £532m. revenues were £4.3bn while the firm s operating margins were 14.1% which it said could reach 14.8% by 2006. during the year wpp bought us rival grey global creating a giant big enough to rival sector leader omnicom. chief executive martin sorrell on friday told reuters news agency that wpp had submitted a proposal for united business media s nop world market research unit. analysts say the unit sell could sell for up to £350m. wpp in recent years has also bought firms such as ogilvy & mather and cordiant communications. it also includes the firms young & rubicam and j walter thompson. events such as the olympics helped boost wpp s profits in 2004. the company said the us congressional elections and the fifa world cup are likely to present advertising opportunities in the near future. the long-term outlook looks very favourable because of media and technology developments and the strength of the us economy wpp said.

Business

beckham virus spotted on the net virus writers are trading on interest in david beckham to distribute their malicious wares. messages are circulating widely that purport to have evidence of the england captain in a compromising position. but anyone visiting the website mentioned in the message will not see pictures of mr beckham but will have their computer infected by a virus. the pernicious program opens a backdoor on a computer so it can be controlled remotely by malicious hackers. the appearance of the beckham windows trojan is just another example in a long line of viruses that trade on interest in celebrities in an attempt to fuel their spread. tennis player anna kournikova popstars britney spears and avril lavigne as well as arnold schwarzenegger have all been used in the past to try to con people into opening infected files. the huge amount of interest in mr beckham and his private life and the large number of messages posted to discussion groups on the net might mean that the malicious program catches a lot of people out. the public s appetite for salacious gossip about the private life of the beckhams might lead some into an unpleasant computer infection said graham cluley from anti-virus firm sophos. simply opening the message will not infect a user s pc. but anyone visiting the website it mentions who then downloads and opens the fake image file stored on that site will be infected. the program that installs itself is called the hackarmy trojan and it tries to recruit pcs into so-called bot networks that are often used to distribute spam mail messages or to launch attacks across the web. computers running microsoft windows 95 98 2000 nt and xp are vulnerable to this trojan. many anti-virus programs have been able to detect this trojan since it first appeared early this year and have regularly been updated to catch new variants.

Science_and_Techology

harinordoquy suffers france axe number eight imanol harinordoquy has been dropped from france s squad for the six nations match with ireland in dublin on 12 march. harinordoquy was a second-half replacement in last saturday s 24-18 defeat to wales. bourgoin lock pascal pape who has recovered from a sprained ankle returns to the 22-man squad. wing cedric heymans and ludovic valbon come in for aurelien rougerie and jean-philippe grandclaude. rougerie hurt his chest against wales while grandclaude was a second-half replacement against both england and wales. valbon capped in last june s tests against the united states and canada was a second half replacement in the win over scotland. france coach bernard laporte said harinordoquy had been axed after a poor display last weekend. imanol has been dropped from the squad because the least i can say is that he didn t make a thundering comeback against wales said laporte. we know the ireland game will be fast and rough and we also want to be able to replace both locks during the game if needed and gregory lamboley can also come on at number seven or eight. the grand slam is gone but we ll go to ireland to win. it will be a very exciting game because ireland have three wins under their belt have just defeated england and have their eyes set on a grand slam. france who lost to wales last week must defeat the irish to keep alive their hopes of retaining the six nations trophy. ireland are unbeaten in this year s tournament and have their sights set on a first grand slam since 1948. dimitri yachvili (biarritz) pierre mignoni (clermont) yann delaigue (castres) frederic michalak (stade toulousain) damien traille (biarritz) yannick jauzion (stade toulousain) ludovic valbon (biarritz) christophe dominici (stade francais) cedric heymans (stade toulousain) julien laharrague (brive) sylvain marconnet (stade francais) nicolas mas (perpignan) olivier milloud (bourgoin) sebastien bruno (sale/eng) william servat (stade toulousain) fabien pelous (stade toulousain capt) jerome thion (biarritz) pascal papé (bourgoin) gregory lamboley (stade toulousain) serge betsen (biarritz) julien bonnaire (bourgoin) yannick nyanga (béziers)

Sports

wall street cheers bush victory the us stock market has closed higher in response to george w bush s victory in the presidential elections. the benchmark dow jones share index closed more than 1% higher at 10 137 while the nasdaq rose 0.9% to 2 004. many investors believe that mr bush s policies are more business-friendly than those of his democrat challenger john kerry. the higher share prices also reflect relief that a clear winner has emerged from what proved to be a tight poll. investors had worried that the outcome of the poll would be inconclusive paving the way for a repeat of the legal wrangling that marred the 2000 election. the dow lost 5% of its value in the three weeks immediately after that election when it was unclear who would occupy the white house. mr kerry conceded defeat on wednesday abandoning last-ditch hopes of carrying the vote in the swing state of ohio. the relief for the markets may be that we have a decision and can move forward said tim ghriskey chief investment officer of solaris asset management. some analysts predicted that the jump in share prices would be short-lived saying investors would quickly focus once again on the health of the us economy. i would look at the stock market rally for bush as kind of a one-day event said ken mayland at clearview economics. the us recent economic performance has been mixed with solid growth offset by disappointingly low job creation figures and mounting worries over a record budget deficit. elsewhere in the financial markets on wednesday the dollar dipped slightly against the euro and climbed against the yen while us oil prices closed up $1.26 at $50.88 a barrel in new york. the rise in oil prices partly reflects the view that president bush is less likely than mr kerry to release supplies from the us strategic oil reserve. share prices in london frankfurt and paris also closed higher. successive polls in the run-up to tuesday s election had shown the two candidates running neck and neck. economic issues as well as the war in iraq were the forefront of the campaign. in key swing states such as ohio which has suffered substantial job losses in the past four years president bush s handling of the economy became a crucial election issue. senator kerry attacked president bush s economic record during his campaign hammering home the fact that a net 800 000 jobs were lost during his term in office. president bush focused on the fact that two million jobs have been created in the past year claiming that it has vindicated his tax-cutting agenda. as for future policies both candidates pledged to bring america s $422bn federal budget deficit under control. senator kerry planned to increase taxes on those earning more than $200 000 a year. president bush has placed reform of the pensions system at the heart of his economic agenda for a second term. however economists have said both candidates economic programmes rested on questionable assumptions about future growth.

Business

halo fans hope for sequel xbox video game halo 2 has been released in the us on 9 november with a uk release two days later. why is the game among the most anticipated of all time halo is considered by many video game pundits to be one of the finest examples of interactive entertainment ever produced and more than 1.5 million people worldwide have pre-ordered the sequel. a science fiction epic halo centred the action on a human cyborg controlled by the player who had to save his crew from an alien horde after a crash landing on a strange and exotic world contained on the interior surface of a giant ring in space. remembrance of things past it was not - but as a slice of schlock science fiction inspired by works such as larry niven s ringworld and the film starship troopers it fit the bill perfectly. halo stood out from a crowd of similar titles - it was graphically impressive had tremendous audio using dolby digital a decent storyline instant playability and impressive physics. but what marked halo as a classic were the thousands of details which brought a feeling of polish and the enormously-high production values not usually associated with video gaming. produced by bungie software renowned for their innovation in gaming it caused a stir among the gaming fraternity when the developer was bought by microsoft and became an xbox exclusive. claude errera editor of fansite halo.bungie.org said: bungie got everything right. they were really careful to make sure everything worked the way it was supposed to. nothing distracts you when you were playing. there was nothing in halo that had not been done before but everything in there was as good as it could be. he added: graphically it was superior to everything else out there. it also had a depth to it that made it stand out. halo was unusually immersive sucking the player into the action and blurring the interface between screen and controller. it also capitalised on the growing popularity of lan gaming in the pc world - for the first time it became easy to link multiple game consoles together allowing up to 16 players to battle against each other at the same time. the game instantly cultivated an online following which continues today with a score of halo fan websites following every aspect of the sequel halo 2. errera spends three to fours hours a day of his own time maintaining the hugely popular website which attracts 600 000 page views a day from halo fans eager for the latest news. when the xbox launched on november 15 2001 in the us halo was one of the launch titles and had an immediate impact on critics and consumers. halo is the most important launch game for any console ever wrote the influential edge magazine in its review giving it a rare 10 out of 10 mark. the game had its critics and while it is not a one-off original as a game it brought many original touches and flourishes to the genre which have defined all other first person shooters since. the first time i played it i just stood there watching the spent shells fall out of my gun said errera remarking on the level of detail in the game. the game also inspired thousands of people to write their own fiction based on the storyline and produce downloadable video clips of the many weird and wonderful things that can be done in the game. it blew me away the first time someone managed to climb to the top of halo said errera referring to a fan who had created a video of master chief scaling the landscape of the graphical world. video clips of the more outrageous stunts that are possible thanks to the game s amazing physics engine are incredibly popular and some have attained a cult following. speculation about the sequel has seen every titbit analysed and poured over with all the intent of a forensic scientist examining a body. when early screenshots of the game were released some people wrote essay-length articles highlighting everything from the texture of graphics to clues about the story line. errera said expectations of the sequel among fans were sky high. it does not feel like a game release any more. somebody told me this was the biggest single release of any product in microsoft s history. we re all just hoping that bungie has got it right again. halo 2 is out on 9 november in the us and 11 november in the uk

Science_and_Techology

mobiles double up as bus tickets mobiles could soon double up as travel cards with nokia planning to try out a wireless ticket system on german buses. early next year travellers in the city of hanau near frankfurt will be able to pay for tickets by passing their phone over a smart-card reader already installed on the buses. passengers will need to own a nokia 3220 handset which will have a special shell attached to it. the system would reduce queues and make travelling easier said nokia. transport systems around the world are seeing the advantage of using ticketless smartcards. using a mobile phone is the next step said gerhard romen head of market development at nokia. the ticketless trial will start early in 2005 and people will also be able to access transport information and timetables via their phones. nokia has worked with electronics giant philips to develop a shell for the mobile phone that will be compatible with hanau s existing ticketing system. the system opens up possibilities for mobile devices to be interact with everyday environments said mr romen. it could be used in shops to get product information at bus-stops to get information about the next bus or for example by being passed over an advert of a rock star to find out details of concerts or get ringtones he told the bbc news website. he is confident that the trial being run in germany could be extended to transport systems in other countries. the technology offers access to a lot of services and makes it easy to get the information you want he said.

Science_and_Techology

davenport dismantles young rival top seed lindsay davenport booked her place in the last 16 of the australian open with a convincing 6-2 6-4 win over nicole vaidisova of the czech republic. the american had too much power for her 15-year-old opponent breaking twice in the first set and once in the second. the german-born vaidisova rallied well at times but was unable to find a way back after falling behind 3-2 in the opening set. davenport who closed out with an ace plays karolina sprem in the next round. i was fully expecting a tough opponent and was able to play well enough to get through it said davenport. i think she hits some great shots. she made some errors but probably some inexperience played a role in that. but she s so young and obviously has a big game and has many many years to improve on that. sprem the croatian 13th seed saw off russia s elena likhovtseva 6-3 6-2. former world number one powered her way into the fourth round with a straight sets win over anna smashnova. the 27th seed from israel stuck with williams until 3-3 in the first set before it became one-way traffic. the american made 26 unforced errors but was still good enough to romp through the contest in exactly an hour. she reeled off nine straight games to finish a 6-3 6-0 winner. remains on course to become the first australian to win her home title since chris o neil in 1978. the 10th seed equalled her best performance at a grand slam event when she beat unseeded russian nadia petrova 6-3 6-2 to reach the fourth round. after a tough first set molik grew in confidence and won in just 56 minutes. she will now meet venus williams. bring it on said the 23-year-old. i played pretty well and it was nice to get through in straight sets. we were destined to meet i guess williams said referring to her match with molik. it will be a huge match for her in australia. i can tell she s probably very motivated by that so i need to get out there and play well. beat slovakia s daniela hantuchova in a rollercoaster match. dementieva came through 7-5 5-7 6-4 becoming the seventh russian woman to reach the last 16 in melbourne. the match lasted almost three hours and featured 13 service breaks including three in the final set when dementieva held her nerve to seal the win. she now faces after the swiss 12th seed beat american abigail spears 7-6 6-3. french open champion received a free ride into the last 16 after lisa raymond was forced to withdraw. raymond the 25th seeded american was ruled out after sustaining a left abdominal muscle tear in the doubles. myskina the third seed now plays france s who beat francesca schiavone of italy 6-3 6-3. i m extremely disappointed because i couldn t have asked to play better in my first two matches raymond said.

Sports

fiat chief takes steering wheel the chief executive of the fiat conglomerate has taken day-to-day control of its struggling car business in an effort to turn it around. sergio marchionne has replaced herbert demel as chief executive of fiat auto with mr demel leaving the company. mr marchionne becomes the fourth head of the business - which is expected to make a 800m euro ($1bn) loss in 2004 - in as many years. fiat underperformed the market in europe last year seeing flat sales. the car business has made an operating loss in five of the last six years and was forced to push back its break-even target from 2005 to 2006. the management changes are part of a wider shake-up of the business following fiat s resolution of its dispute with general motors. as part of a major restructuring fiat is to integrate the maserati car company - currently owned by ferrari - within its own operations. ferrari in which fiat owns a majority stake could be separately floated on the stock market in either 2006 or 2007. mr marchionne who only joined the company last year said fiat auto was now the principal focus of his attention. i have made the decision to take on the post of chief executive of the auto unit to speed up the company s recovery he said. a profound cultural transformation is underway following a management reorganisation that has delivered a more agile and efficient structure he added. although mr marchionne does not have a background in the car industry he has been playing an increasing role in the group s activities. last year he said that a series of new models launched as part of the group s recovery plan had not boosted revenues as much as hoped. the car business best known for its alfa romeo marque is expected to make a loss of about 800m euros in 2004. sales are expected to fall in 2005 fiat said this week as it exits unprofitable areas such as the rental car market. mr demel a car industry veteran took the helm in november 2003 after being recruited by former fiat chief executive giuseppe morchio. mr morchio made a bid last year to become chairman after the death of president umberto agnelli. however this was rejected by the founding agnelli family and mr morchio subsequently resigned. earlier this week fiat reached an agreement with gm to dissolve an alliance which could have obliged gm to buy the italian firm outright. gm will pay fiat $2bn as part of the settlement.

Business

mourinho expects fight to finish chelsea manager jose mourinho expects the champions league clash with barcelona to be a fight to the finish. mourinho is relishing the first leg of the tie against his former club in the last 16 in the nou camp. he said: i wouldn t be surprised if nothing had been decided by the last minute of the return leg and the match had to go into extra time. i have to defend what is mine and the champions league is mine at the moment. i m the last manager to have won it. mourinho never coached barcelona assisting both sir bobby robson and louis van gaal. but he is not envious insisting: i don t have to be jealous about barcelona because they have 100 years of history and have won the european cup once. i have been managing for five years and i have the same amount of champions league trophies to my name. barcelona star ronaldinho admitted: i think that it is going to be a difficult match for us because chelsea have a good team full of big stars. i have seen chelsea a few times on television tactically they are very good and they are very strong on the counter-attack. they pressure very well and keep possession of the ball so it will be important that we play our own game. i believe they are the two strongest teams in europe. nevertheless barcelona are accustomed to playing big games at the nou camp where they have to face the likes of real madrid each season. it is a special game the atmosphere in the city changes there are lots of journalists but inside the dressing room there is not a lot of difference ronaldinho added. we are only thinking of winning the match with all respect to the opposition.

Sports

boro suffer morrison injury blow middlesbrough midfielder james morrison has been ruled out for up to eight weeks after an operation on tuesday. the 18-year-old who has played in 13 of the club s last 14 games had surgery to repair a double hernia. a club spokesman confirmed: it is a bilateral sportsman s hernia which was operated on yesterday. morrison was sent for scans after being substituted at half-time during boro s 2-1 uefa cup win over graz ak in which he scored the equaliser. his injury is the latest blow for the teessiders who have been without gaizka mendieta george boateng and mark viduka for extended periods. meanwhile the kick-off time for boro s uefa cup match at sporting lisbon on 17 march has been brought forward from 2115 gmt to 1945 gmt.

Sports

campese berates whingeing england former australian wing david campese has told england to stop whingeing in the wake of their defeat to ireland. england coach andy robinson lambasted referee jonathan kaplan for costing them the game after disallowing tries from mark cueto and josh lewsey. but campese told bbc sport: robinson is living up to england s reputation as whingeing poms. stop going on about it as who really cares they re acting like they re the first team to be cheated of a win. england are contemplating a complaint to the international rugby board after potential tries by cueto in the first half and lewsey late on were ruled out without recourse to the video referee. but campese added: scotland could have beaten france in the same way but do you see them whingeing basically things didn t go england s way and in typical fashion they make more of it when they believe they ve lost unfairly. england are second bottom in the six nations table following defeats by wales france and ireland. but although campese admitted he was surprised about their current predicament he insisted england were no longer world class . england are beginning to realise that being world champions doesn t mean you deserve to win every game he said. they lost a few key players and suddenly everyone s realised the ones on the fringes were not all that good in the first place. added to that the senior players aren t standing up and they can t do anything when the pressure mounts. campese a veteran of 101 international caps said full-back jason robinson would now be the sole englishman in his world xv. robinson has been blamed for poor leadership in the tournament while his coach has been castigated for appointing a full-back captain. i agree that you can t captain from full-back said campese. you need someone in the thick of the action and it s very hard to give orders from all the way back there. some people are leaders and some aren t. he s not but there s no one who stands out in england s pack - no clear-cut leaders. campese though defended coach andy robinson who he believes was the only choice after sir clive woodward s resignation. but he blamed a lack of talent in the england camp for making the current coach look poor. england face a potential wooden spoon match against italy on 12 march. and the ex-wallaby added: if england lost that they d be in bloody turmoil. that said i don t think they will. campese has tipped wales to win both the six nations and grand slam come the end of the tournament. it s been a surprising tournament he said and maybe ireland have a little bit more talent overall. but playing at home is a major boost. and the possible grand slam decider at the millennium stadium will be just too much for the irish.

Sports

edu describes tunnel fracas arsenal s edu has lifted the lid on the scenes that followed manchester united s win over the gunners. the brazilian confirmed tempers had flared but could shed no light on reports that food was thrown at united boss sir alex ferguson. i saw people being pulled apart people pushing pointing and shouting he told uefa s official website. the united players were trying to wind us up about the result but i didn t see any soup being thrown at anyone. however edu tried to play down the incidents adding: there was nothing that i haven t seen in brazilian derbies. derby matches in brazil are worse. i like to play in games like this with this intense rivalry. but edu was highly critical of the ferocity of some of united s challenges during the game particularly on jose antonio reyes. i think we were a lot fairer in the tackles than united he said. reyes was being kicked all over the park - they were beating up the boy and gary neville was tackling in such a way that he should have been sent off. following the game the football association said it would look into events in the tunnel. it also charged ruud van nistelrooy with serious foul play while arsenal boss arsene wenger has been asked to explain comments he made about the referee.

Sports

emi shares hit by profit warning shares in music giant emi have sunk by more than 16% after the firm issued a profit warning following disappointing sales and delays to two album releases. emi said music sales for the year to march will fall 8-9% from the year before with profits set to be 15% lower than analysts had expected. it blamed poor sales since christmas and delays to the releases of new albums by coldplay and gorillaz. by 1200 gmt on monday emi shares were down 16.2% at 235.75 pence. emi said two major albums scheduled for release before the end of the financial year in march - one by coldplay and one by gorillaz - have now had their release dates put back. emi music s sales particularly re-orders in january have also been lower than anticipated and this is expected to continue through february and march the company added. therefore for the full year at constant currency emi music s sales are now expected to be 8% to 9% lower than the prior year. the company said it expected profits to be about £138m ($259.8m). alain levy chairman and chief executive of emi music described the performance as disappointing but added that he remained optimistic over future trends in the industry. the physical music market is showing signs of stabilisation in many parts of the world and digital music in all its forms continues to develop at a rapid pace he said. commenting on the delay to the release of the coldplay and gorillaz albums mr levy said that creating and marketing music is not an exact science and cannot always coincide with our reporting periods . while this rescheduling and recent softness is disappointing it does not change my views of the improving health of the global recorded music industry he added. paul richards an analyst at numis securities said the market would be focusing on the slump in music sales rather than the timing of the two albums. it s unusual to see this much of a downgrade just because of phasing he said.

Business

tottenham bid £8m for forest duo nottingham forest have confirmed they have received an £8m bid from tottenham for andy reid and michael dawson. reid rejected a move to southampton after forest accepted a cash-plus-players offer while spurs had made previous bids for the 22-year-old. spurs had also made an undisclosed offer for 21-year-old defender dawson. forest chief executive mark arthur said: we ve received an £8m bid from spurs for the two players and we re considering the offer. southampton s offer for republic of ireland international reid comprised £3m-plus and two players - brett ormerod and darren kenton. spurs had seen previous bids of £3m £4m and £5m for reid rejected by the championship club.

Sports

injury sidelines philippoussis mark philippoussis withdrew from the sydney international tennis tournament as expected on sunday after suffering a groin injury during the hopman cup. his participation in the australian open which begins on 17 january in melbourne also remains in doubt. defending women s champion justine henin-hardenne is also out of the sydney event because of a knee injury. in the only main draw men s or women s singles match on sunday nathalie dechy beat american lisa raymond 7-5 6-3. number one men s seed lleyton hewitt begins his quest for a fourth sydney title on tuesday when he plays karol beck. lindsay davenport top seed in the women s draw has been handed a first-round bye and plays france s dechy in the second round on tuesday.

Sports

lse doubts boost bidders shares shares in deutsche boerse have risen more than 3% after a shareholder fund voiced opposition to the firm s planned takeover of the london stock exchange. tci which claims to represent owners of 5% of deutsche boerse s (db) shares has complained that the £1.35bn ($2.5bn) offer for the lse is too high. opposition from tci has fuelled speculation that the proposed takeover could fail. rival exchange operator euronext has also said it may bid for the lse. euronext operates the paris amsterdam brussels and lisbon bourses while deutsche boerse runs the frankfurt exchange. bbc news spoke to a number of analysts on monday morning about shareholder worries over deutsche boerse s bid for lse. although none were prepared to speak on the record most thought it was unlikely that tci s opposition would halt the deal obviously we ll have to wait and see but i don t think it will make much difference. deutsche boerse appears very committed said one london-based broker. he forecast the takeover bid would succeed and was more concerned to see improvements in the daily running of the lse. in voicing its opposition to the planned takeover tci said it would prefer to see deutsche boerse return $500m (£350m) to shareholders. the deutsche boerse was prepared to pay for the lse exceeds the potential benefits of this acquisition said tci. another deutsche boerse shareholder on monday also appeared to back tci s call. another investor in deutsche boerse has supported the view that a payout to shareholders would be preferable to deutsche boerse overpaying for the lse reuters news agency reported. we prefer a sensible entrepreneurial solution at a price that is not too high said rolf dress a spokesman for union investment. if that cannot be achieved then we would wish for a distribution of liquid assets to shareholders. the financial times also reported a third deutsche boerse shareholder as opposed to the deal. it quoted a spokesman for us-based hedge fund atticus capital complaining that the planned takeover appeared to be motivated by empire-building rather than the best interests of shareholders. tci has called for deutsche boerse to hold an emergency general meeting to discuss the bid for lse. yet under german business law db does not have to gain shareholder approval before making a significant acquisition. deutsche boerse said tci s opposition would not change its bid approach. deutsche boerse is convinced that its contemplated cash acquisition of the london stock exchange is in the best interests of its shareholders and the company it said. db s shares were up 3.4% to 45.25 euros by 1030 gmt the highest gainer in frankfurt.

Business

minister digs in over doping row the belgian sports minister at the centre of the svetlana kuznetsova doping row says he will not apologise for making allegations against her. claude eerdekens claims the us open champion tested positive for ephedrine at an exhibition event last month. criticised for making the announcement he said: i will never apologise. this product is banned and it s up to her to explain why it s there. kuznetsova says the stimulant may have been in a cold remedy she took. the russian said she did nothing wrong by taking the medicine during the event. the women s tennis association cleared kuznetsova of any offence because the drug is not banned when taken out of competition. eerdekens said he made the statement in order to protect the other three players that took part in the tournament belgian justine henin-hardenne nathalie dechy of france and russia s elena dementieva. but dechy is fuming that she has been implicated in the row. how can you be happy when you see your face on the cover page and talking about doping dechy said. i m really upset about it and i think the belgian government did a really bad job about this. i think we deserve an apology from the guy. you cannot say anything like this - you cannot say some stuff like this saying it s one of these girls. this is terrible. dementieva is also angry and says that dechy and herself are the real victims of the scandal. you have no idea what i have been through all these days. it s been too hard on me she said. the wta are trying to handle this problem by saying there are three victims but i see only two victims in this story - me and nathalie dechy who really have nothing to do with this. to be honest with you i don t feel like i want to talk to sveta at all. i m just very upset with the way everything has happened.

Sports

beckham relief as real go through david beckham expressed his relief at real madrid s passage to the champions league knockout phase. after real s 3-0 win at roma the england skipper admitted another season of under-achievement would not be tolerated at the bernabeu stadium. beckham said: it s expected of madrid to get through but it s a relief for the club and players to have won. we lost momentum last season but we cannot afford to to go another season without winning anything. real s finish as runners-up in their champions league group means they cannot face his old club manchester united in the next round. but real could be drawn against other premiership hopefuls arsenal or chelsea who won their respective groups. it s going to be great whoever we play even if we don t get either of the two english teams.

Sports

hewitt fights back to reach final lleyton hewitt kept his dream of an australian open title alive with a four-set win over andy roddick in friday s second semi-final. the home favourite will face marat safin in sunday s final after coming through 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) 6-1. hewitt fought back from a set down and trailed in both tie-breaks but would not be denied thrilling the melbourne crowd with a typically battling effort. he is aiming to be the first australian winner since mark edmondson in 1976. hewitt is the first australian to make the final since pat cash lost to mats wilander in 1988 but faces a huge challenge against safin - the conqueror of roger federer. after needing five sets in his last two matches there was reason to think hewitt might struggle for fitness. he certainly made a sluggish start dropping his opening service game and roddick dominated with his huge serve as he took the first set. after 12 tense games in the second the key moment came when hewitt raised his game in the tie-break to overturn an early mini-break. that energised the crowd but roddick was not finished and raced 4-1 clear in the crucial third before hewitt pegged him back and forced another tie-break. again roddick broke first and again hewitt fought back taking the lead with a superb backhand pass. the australian was not to be denied and a disheartened roddick made little impact in the fourth set as hewitt raced to victory sending the melbourne crowd wild and ensuring the final will be a huge occasion. it s awesome said hewitt. i started preparing for this tournament nine months ago. i ve done a lot of hard yards to get here. i ve always said i d do anything to get in the first night final at the australian open. now i ve got my chance. roddick was furious with himself for failing to take advantage of leads in both tie-breaks. i m usually pretty money in those said roddick. either one of those would have given me a distinct advantage. i m mad i felt i was in there with a shot. he put himself in position to win big points. i donated a little more than i would have wanted. and the american played down the influence of one spectator who appeared to contribute to a double fault by shouting during rodick s service action. it just took one jackass to shout out said roddick adding that the crowd overall was very respectful .

Sports

iran jails blogger for 14 years an iranian weblogger has been jailed for 14 years on charges of spying and aiding foreign counter-revolutionaries. arash sigarchi was arrested last month after using his blog to criticise the arrest of other online journalists. mr sigarchi who also edits a newspaper in northern iran was sentenced by a revolutionary court in the gilan area. his sentence criticised by human rights watchdog reporters without borders comes a day after an online day of action to secure his release. iranian authorities have recently clamped down on the growing popularity of weblogs restricting access to major blogging sites from within iran. a second iranian blogger motjaba saminejad who also used his website to report on bloggers arrests is still being held. a spokesman for reporters without borders which tracks press freedom across the globe described mr sigarchi s sentence as harsh and called on iranian president mohammed khatami to work to secure his immediate release. the authorities are trying to make an example of him the organisation said in a statement. by handing down this harsh sentence against a weblogger their aim is to dissuade journalists and internet-users from expressing themselves online or contacting foreign media. in the days before his arrest mr sigarchi gave interviews to the bbc persian service and the us-funded radio farda. iranian authorities have arrested about 20 online journalists during the current crackdown. they accused mr sigarchi of a string of crimes against iranian state including espionage insulting the founder of iran s islamic republic ayatollah ruhollah khomenei and current supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei. mr sigarchi s lawyer labelled the revolutionary court illegal and incompetent and called for a retrial in a public court. mr sigarchi was sentenced one day after an online campaign highlighted his case in a day of action in defence of bloggers around the world. the committee to protect bloggers designated 22 february 2005 as free mojtaba and arash day. around 10 000 people visited the campaign s website during the day. about 12% of users were based in iran the campaign s director told the bbc news website. curt hopkins said mr sigarchi s sentence would not dent the resolve of bloggers joining the campaign to help highlight the case. the eyes of 8 million bloggers are going to be more focused on iran since sigarchi s sentence not less. the mullahs won t be able to make a move without it be spread across the blogosphere.

Science_and_Techology

broadband takes on tv viewing the number of europeans with broadband has exploded over the past 12 months with the web eating into tv viewing habits research suggests. just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband up from 34 million a year ago according to market analysts nielsen/netratings. the total number of people online in europe has broken the 100 million mark. the popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from tv say analysts jupiter research. it found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time watching tv in favour of the net the report by nielsen/netratings found that the number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year. the biggest jump was in italy where it rose by 120%. britain was close behind with broadband users almost doubling in a year. the growth has been fuelled by lower prices and a wider choice of always-on fast-net subscription plans. twelve months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing said gabrielle prior nielsen/netratings analyst. as the number of high-speed surfers grows websites will need to adapt update and enhance their content to retain their visitors and encourage new ones. the total number of europeans online rose by 12% to 100 million over the past year the report showed with the biggest rise in france italy britain and germany. the ability to browse web pages at high speed download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what people do in their spare time. a study by analysts jupiter research suggested that broadband was challenging television viewing habits. in homes with broadband 40% said they were spending less time watching tv. the threat to tv was greatest in countries where broadband was on the up in particular the uk france and spain said the report. it said tv companies faced a major long-term threat over the next five years with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009. year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where when and how europe s population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big implications for tv newspaper and radio said jupiter research analyst olivier beauvillian.

Science_and_Techology

british library gets wireless net visitors to the british library will be able to get wireless internet access alongside the extensive information available in its famous reading rooms. broadband wireless connectivity will be made available in the eleven reading rooms the auditorium café restaurant and outdoor piazza area. a study revealed that 86% of visitors to the library carried laptops. the technology has been on trial since may and usage levels make the library london s most active public hotspot. previously many were leaving the building to go to a nearby internet café to access their e-mail the study found. at the british library we are continually exploring ways in which technology can help us to improve services to our users said lynne brindley chief executive of the british library. surveys we conducted recently confirmed that alongside the materials they consult here our users want to be able to access the internet when they are at the library for research or to communicate with colleagues she said. the service will be priced at £4.50 for an hour s session or £35 for a monthly pass. the study conducted by consultancy building zones found that 16% of visitors came to the library to sit down and use it as a business centre. this could be because of its proximity to busy mainline stations such as kings cross and euston. the study also found that people were spending an average of six hours in the building making it an ideal wireless hotspot. since may the service has registered 1 200 sessions per week making it london s most active public hotspot. the majority of visitors wanted to be able to access their e-mail as well as the british library catalogue. the service has been rolled out in partnership with wireless provider the cloud and hewlett packard. it will operate independently from the library s existing network. the british library receives around 3 000 visitors each day and serves around 500 000 readers each year. people come to view resources which include the world s largest collection of patents and the uk s most extensive collection of science technology and medical information. the library receives between three and four million requests from remote users around the world each year.

Science_and_Techology

ore costs hit global steel firms shares in steel firms have dropped worldwide amid concerns that higher iron ore costs will hit profit growth. shares in germany s thyssenkrupp the uk s corus and france s arcleor fell while japan s nippon steel slid after it agreed to pay 72% more for iron ore. china s baoshan iron and steel co. said it was delaying a share sale because of weak market conditions adding it would raise steel prices to offset ore costs. the threat of higher raw material costs also hit industries such as carmakers. france s peugeot warned that its profits may decline this year as a result of the higher steel plastic and commodity prices. steelmakers have been enjoying record profits as demand for steel has risen driven by the booming economies of countries such as china and india. steel prices rose by 8% globally in january alone and by 24% in china. the boom times are far from over but analysts say that earnings growth may slow. the share price fall was initially triggered by news that two of the world s biggest iron ore suppliers had negotiated contracts at much-higher prices. miners rio tinto and cia. vale do rio dolce (cvrd) this week managed to boost by 72% the price of their iron ore a key component of steel. analysts had expected japan s nippon to agree to a price rise of between 40% and 50%. steel analyst peter fish director of sheffield-based consulting group meps said the extent of cvrd s price rise was uncharted territory adding that the steel industry hasn t seen an increase of this magnitude probably in 50 years . analysts now expect other iron ore producers such as australia s bhp billiton to seek annual price rises of up to 70%. the news triggered the share price weakness. it sparked worries that steel makers might not be able to increase product prices further [ to cover rising ore costs] explained kazuhiro takahashi of daiwa securities smbc. in europe arcelor shed 2.1% to 17.58 euros in paris with thyssenkrupp dropping 1.7% to 16.87 euros. in london corus fell 2.2% to 55.57 pence. japan s biggest steel company nippon steel lost 2.5% to 270 yen with closest rival jfe holdings down 3.4%. china s baoshan the country s largest steel producer said that the uncertainty surrounding the industry has prompted it to pull its planned share sale. the firm had been expected to offer 22.5bn yuan ($2.7bn) worth of shares to investors. no date has been given for when the 5 billion shares will come to the market. baoshan stock climbed on news of the delay and its decision to increase the price of its steel by 10%.

Business

uk young top euro earnings league british children enjoy the highest average annual income in europe - more than double that of spanish or italian youngsters a report suggests. children in the uk between the ages of 10 and 17 had an annual income of £775 said market analyst datamonitor. they use pester power to get their parents to stump up nearly a third of this income the report said. as for how they spend their cash the bulk goes on personal care soft drinks and food datamonitor said. datamonitor adds that british teenagers are keen on personal care because it helps them combine two seemingly contradictory emotional needs - the desire to fit in and the desire to express their individuality. british teenage girls compared to their counterparts in seven european countries are the most keen to use make-up products. nearly three out of four girls said they used make-up. according to the datamonitor report the trend marked british teenagers out as particularly important to cosmetics manufacturers as they are likely to experiment more with brands and products and form long-term beauty routines . and the good times are likely to keep rolling for british children as the report predicts that they will still be topping the earnings table in 2008.

Business

almagro continues spanish surge unseeded nicolas almagro became the fifth spaniard to reach the last eight at the buenos aires open ousting eighth seed mariano zabaleta. he showed admirable resolve to win a rain-affected match 6-7 6-4 6-4. compatriot and seventh seed rafael nadal also reached the last eight beating italian potito starace 6-1 6-3. nadal playing in the outdoor clay event for the first time hit some powerful forehands to oust starace in a match delayed over an hour by rain. it s always a problem to have to stop for rain but one gets used to it said spanish teenager nadal. luckily i was able to keep my pace going throughout the match. he will now play gaston gaudio who beat unseeded brazilian flavio saretta 6-3 6-2 in the day s late match.

Sports

robinson out of six nations england captain jason robinson will miss the rest of the six nations because of injury. robinson stand-in captain in the absence of jonny wilkinson had been due to lead england in their final two games against italy and scotland. but the sale full-back pulled out of the squad on wednesday because of a torn ligament in his right thumb. the 30-year-old will undergo an operation on friday but england have yet to name a replacement skipper. robinson said: this is very disappointing for me as this means i miss england s last two games in the six nations at twickenham and two games for my club sale sharks. but i m looking to be back playing very early in april. robinson picked up the injury in the 19-13 defeat to ireland at lansdowne road on saturday. and coach andy robinson said: i am hugely disappointed for jason. as england captain he has been an immense figure during the autumn internationals and the six nations leading by example at all times. i look forward to having him back in the england squad. the announcement is the latest setback for robinson s injury-depleted squad. among the key figures already missing are jonny wilkinson mike tindall will greenwood julian white and phil vickery - a list which leaves robinson short on candidates for the now vacant captaincy role. former england skipper jeremy guscott told bbc radio five live his choice would be matt dawson even though he is does not hold a regular starting place. the obvious choice is dawson said guscott. especially given that harry ellis did not have his best game at scrum-half on saturday. dawson has the credentials and the experience even though his winning record at captain is not great. the other option in martin corry who is the standout forward at the moment. unfortunately england cannot rely on leaders on the field at the moment. england will announce their squad for the 12 march game against italy on saturday.

Sports

mourinho takes swipe at arsenal chelsea boss jose mourinho has attempted to pile the pressure on title rivals arsenal ahead of the gunners facing newcastle on wednesday. arsenal will play the magpies a day after chelsea beat portsmouth during a busy festive programme. and mourinho said: they always seem to have two or three days rest in which to recover. perhaps it s something to do with the television schedule. all my players are tired especially john terry. chelsea boss jose mourinho admitted his side were lucky to win at fratton park but is still unhappy with the amount of games in such a short space of time during this time of year. he added: we have had to play two matches in three days which is foreign to many of my players and although i understand the traditions of football here at this time of year it is not good for your health to do it. you can sit back and smoke cigars one after another and it is a good life but it is not actually good for you. playing so many games is certainly not healthy especially for teams who still have european commitment.

Sports

us bank in $515m sec settlement five bank of america subsidiaries have agreed to pay a total of $515m (£277m) to settle an investigation into fraudulent trading share practices. the us securities and exchange commission announced the settlements the latest in an industry-wide clean-up of us mutual funds. the sec also said it had brought fraud charges against two ex-senior executives of columbia distributor. columbia distributor was part of fleetboston bought by boa last year. three other ex-columbia executives agreed settlements with the sec. the sec has set itself the task of stamping out the mutual funds use of market-timing a form of quick-fire short-term share trading that harms the interests of small investors with whom mutual funds are particularly popular. in the last two years it has imposed penalties totalling nearly $2bn on 15 funds. the sec unveiled two separate settlements one covering boa s direct subsidiaries and another for businesses that were part of fleetboston at the time. in both cases it said there had been secret deals to engage in market timing in mutual fund shares. the sec agreed a deal totalling $375m with banc of america capital management bacap distributors and banc of america securities. it was made up of $250m to pay back gains from market timing and $125m in penalties. it is to be paid to the damaged funds and their shareholders. separately the sec said it had reached a $140m deal - equally split between penalties and compensation - in its probe into columbia management advisors (cam) and columbia funds distributor (cfd) and three ex-columbia executives. these businesses became part of boa when it snapped up rival bank fleetboston in a $47bn merger last march. the sec filed civil fraud charges in a boston federal court against james tambone who it says headed cfd s sales operations and his alleged second in command robert hussey. the sec is pressing for the highest tier of financial penalties against the pair for multiple violations repayment of any personal gains and an injunction to prevent future breaches a spokeswoman for the sec s boston office told the bbc. there was no immediate comment from the men s lawyers. the sec s settlement with cam and cfd included agreements with three other ex-managers peter martin erik gustafson and joseph palombo who paid personal financial penalties of between $50-100 000.

Business

fannie mae should restate books us mortgage company fannie mae should restate its earnings a move that is likely to put a billion-dollar dent in its accounts watchdogs have said. the securities & exchange commission accused fannie mae of using techniques that did not comply in material respects with accounting standards. fannie mae last month warned that some records were incorrect. the other main us mortgage firm freddie mac restated earnings by $5bn (£2.6bn) last year after a probe of its books. the sec s comments are likely to increase pressure on congress to strengthen supervision of fannie mae and freddie mac. the two firms are key parts of the us financial system and effectively underwrite the mortgage market financing nearly half of all american house purchases and dealing actively in bonds and other financial instruments. the investigation of freddie mac in june 2003 sparked concerns about the wider health of the industry and raised questionsmarks over the role of the office of federal housing enterprise oversight (ofheo) the industry s main regulator. having been pricked into action the ofheo turned its attention to fannie may and in september this year said that the firm had tweaked its books to spread earnings more smoothly across quarters and play down the amount of risk it had taken on. the sec found similar problems. the watchdog s chief accountant donald nicolaisen said that fannie mae s methodology of assessing measuring and documenting hedge ineffectiveness was inadequate and was not supported by generally accepted accounting principles.

Business

apple laptop is greatest gadget the apple powerbook 100 has been chosen as the greatest gadget of all time by us magazine mobile pc. the 1991 laptop was chosen because it was one of the first lightweight portable computers and helped define the layout of all future notebook pcs. the magazine has compiled an all-time top 100 list of gadgets which includes the sony walkman at number three and the 1956 zenith remote control at two. gadgets needed moving parts and/or electronics to warrant inclusion. the magazine staff compiled the list and specified that gadgets also needed to be a self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own not a subset of another device . in general we included only items that were potentially mobile said the magazine. in the end we tried to get to the heart of what really makes a gadget a gadget it concluded. the oldest gadget in the top 100 is the abacus which the magazine dates at 190 a.d. and put in 60th place. other pre-electronic gadgets in the top 100 include the sextant from 1731 (59th position) the marine chronometer from 1761 (42nd position) and the kodak brownie camera from 1900 (28th position). the tivo personal video recorder is the newest device to make the top 10 which also includes the first flash mp3 player (diamond multimedia) as well as the first successful digital camera (casio qv-10) and mobile phone (motorola startac). the most popular gadget of the moment the apple ipod is at number 12 in the list while the first sony transistor radio is at number 13. sony s third entry in the top 20 is the cdp-101 cd player from 1983. who can forget the crystalline hiss-free blast of madonna s like a virgin emanating from their first cd player asked the magazine. karl elsener s knife the swiss army knife from 1891 is at number 20 in the list. gadgets which could be said to feature surprisingly low down in the list include the original telephone (23rd) the nintendo gameboy (25th) and the pulsar quartz digital watch (36th). the list also contains plenty of oddities: the pez sweet dispenser (98th) 1990s toy tamagotchi (86th) and the bizarre ronco inside the shell egg scrambler (84th). almost everyone has a mobile phone how many people own a powerbook or an ipod the findings of this magazine are not very convincing. what about the magnetic compass we still use it 1 000 years after it was invented. i am amazed by the obsession with individual gadgets rather than genre. for example the sony walkman was the first truly portable way of listening to your own music on the move whereas minidisc flash mp3 portable cd players etc. are really just improvements in technology. my favourite true gadgets are probably my portable minidisc player and the little battery powered whizzy thing i use to froth up my coffee! calm down it s only in their opinion and any list that includes the taser in the top 100 gadgets has to be suspect.... swiss army knife and no question about it. how many of the other items are still relatively unchanged from the original idea and still as useful/popular you don t need a laptop or even a pocket calculator to work that one out! this list merely illustrates interesting cultural divides between the american authors and the overwhelmingly british responses. brits see no further than mobile phones and the over thirties sinclair; whilst the americans focus on apple tv remotes and tivo (which probably is rather obscure in europe). what about the soda stream. this gadget changed my pre-teen life. lap tops may enable you to think different but you cant use them to get busy with the fizzy how about astro wars one of the pioneers for computer games i remember spending many an hour playing this and it still works today! however tried it the other day and it was rubbish still a great gadget of its time. why worry about mobile phones. soon they will be subsumed into the pda s / laptops etc. what about the marine chronometer completely revolutionised navigation for boats and was in use for centuries. for it s time a technological marvel! sony net minidisc! it paved the way for more mp3 player to explode onto the market. i always used my netmd and could not go anywhere without it. a laptop computer is not a gadget! it s a working tool! the sinclair executive was the world s first pocket calculator. i think this should be there as well. how about the clockwork radio or gps or a pocket calculator all these things are useful to real people not just pc magazine editors. are the people who created this list insane surely the most important gadget of the modern age is the mobile phone it has revolutionised communication which is more than can be said for a niche market laptop. from outside the modern age the marine chronometer is the single most important gadget without which modern transportation systems would not have evolved so quickly. has everyone forgot about the breville pie maker an interesting list. of the electronic gadgets thousands of journalists in the early 1980s blessed the original noteboook pc - the tandy 100. the size of a4 paper and light three weeks on a set of batteries an excellent keyboard a modem. a pity tandy did not make it dos compatible. what s an apple powerbook 100 it s out of date - not much of a gadget . surely it has to be something simple / timeless - the tin opener swiss army knife safety razor blade wristwatch or the thing for taking stones out of horses hooves it has to be the mobile phone. no other single device has had such an effect on our way of living in such a short space of time. the ball point pen has got to be one of the most used and common gadgets ever. also many might be grateful for the pocket calculator which was a great improvement over the slide rule. the casio pocket calculator that played a simple game and made tinny noises was also a hot gadget in 1980. a true gadget it could be carried around and shown off. all top 10 are electronic toys so the list is probably a better reflection of the current high-tech obsession than anything else. i say this as the swiss army knife only made no 20. sinclair ql a machine far ahead of its time. the first home machine with a true multi-takings os. shame the marketing was so bad!!! apple.. a triumph of fashion over... well everything else. utter rubbish. yes the apple laptop and sony walkman are classic gadgets. but to call the sextant and the marine chronometer gadgets and rank them as less important than a tv remote control reveals a quite shocking lack of historical perspective. the former literally helped change the world by vastly improving navigation at see. the latter is the seed around which the couch potato culture has developed. no competition. i d also put apple s newton and the first palm pilot there as the front runners for portable computing and possibly the toshiba libretto for the same reason. i only wish that vulcan inc s flipstart wasn t just vapourware otherwise it would be at the top. how did a laptop ever manage to beat off the challenge of the wristwatch or the telephone (mobile or otherwise) what about radios and tvs the swiss army knife. by far the most useful gadget. i got mine 12 years ago. still wearing and using it a lot! it stood the test of time. psion organiser series 3 should be up there. had a usable qwerty keyboard removable storage good set of apps and programmable. case design was good (batteries in the hinge - a first i think). great product innovation. the first mobile pc was voted best gadget by readers of...err... mobile pc ! why do you keep putting these obviously biased lists on your site it s obviously the mobile phone or remote control and readers of a less partisan publication would tell you that. the motorola startac should be number one. why there will be mobile phones long after notebook computers and other gadgets are either gone or integrated in communications devices. the psion series 3c! the first most practical way to carry all your info around... i too would back the sinclair spectrum - without this little beauty i would never have moved into the world of it and earn the living that i do now. i d have put the mobile phone high up the list. probably a nokia model. sinclair spectrum - 16k. it plugged into the tv. games were rubbish but it gave me a taste for programming and that s what i do for a living now. i wish more modern notebooks -- even apple s newest offerings -- were more like the pb100. particularly disheartening is the demise of the trackball which has given way to the largely useless trackpad which every notebook on the market today uses. they re invariably inaccurate uncomfortable and cumbersome to use. congratulations to apple a deserved win!

Science_and_Techology

s korea spending boost to economy south korea will boost state spending next year in an effort to create jobs and kick start its sputtering economy. it has earmarked 100 trillion won ($96bn) for the first six months of 2005 60% of its total annual budget. the government s main problems are slumping consumption and a contraction in the construction industry . it aims to create 400 000 jobs and will focus on infrastructure and home building as well as providing public firms with money to hire new workers. the government has set an economic growth rate target of 5% for next year and hinted that would be in danger unless it took action. internal and external economic conditions are likely to remain unfavourable in 2005 the finance and economy ministry said in a statement. it blamed continuing uncertainties such as fluctuating oil prices and foreign exchange rates and stagnant domestic demand that has shown few signs of a quick rebound . in 2004 growth will be between 4.7% and 4.8% the ministry said. not everyone is convinced the plan will work. our primary worry centres on the what we believe is the government s overly optimistic view that its front loading of the budget will be enough to turn the economy around consultancy 4cast said in a report. the problem facing south korea is that many consumers are reeling from the effects of a credit bubble that only recently burst. millions of south koreans are defaulting on their credit card bills and the country s biggest card lender has been hovering on the verge of bankruptcy for months. as part of its spending plans the government said it will ask firms to roll over mortgage loans that come due in the first half of 2005 . it also pledged to look at ways of helping families on low incomes. the government voiced concern about the effect of redundancies in the building trade. given the economic spill over and employment effect in the construction sector a sharp downturn in the construction industry could have other adverse effects the ministry said. as a result south korea will give private companies also will be given the chance to build schools hospitals houses and other public buildings. it also will look at real estate tax system. other plans on the table include promoting new industries such as bio-technology and nano-technology as well as offering increased support to small and medium sized businesses. the focus will be on job creation and economic recovery given that unfavourable domestic and global conditions are likely to dog the korean economy in 2005 the ministry said.

Business

iaaf awaits greek pair s response kostas kenteris and katerina thanou are yet to respond to doping charges from the international association of athletics federations (iaaf). the greek pair were charged after missing a series of routine drugs tests in tel aviv chicago and athens. they have until midnight on 16 december and an iaaf spokesman said: we re sure their responses are on their way. if they do not respond or their explanations are rejected they will be provisionally banned from competition. they will then face a hearing in front of the greek federation which will ultimately determine their fate. their former coach christos tzekos has also been charged with distributing banned substances. under iaaf rules the athletes could receive a maximum one-year suspension. kenteris and thanou already face a criminal trial after being charged with avoiding a drug test on the eve of the athens olympics and then faking a motorcyle crash. no date for the trial has yet been set and again tzekos is also facing charges. the iaaf issued an official warning to the trio last year after they were discovered training in qatar rather than in crete where they had said they would be. all athletes must inform their national federations where they are at all times so they can be available for out-of-competition drugs tests. but kenteris and thanou then went on to skip tests in tel aviv and chicago when they decided to fly back to greece early. then just before the olympics the pair dramatically missed another test in athens and withdrew from the games.

Sports

hacker threat to apple s itunes users of apple s music jukebox itunes need to update the software to avoid a potential security threat. hackers can build malicious playlist files which could crash the program and let them seize control of the computer by inserting trojan code. a new version of itunes is now available from the apple website which solves the problem. security firm idefence which notified users of the problem recommended that users upgrade to itunes version 4.7.1. the problem affects all users of itunes - windows and mac os - running versions 4.7 and earlier. users can automatically upgrade itunes by opening the look for updates window in the program. the security firm says users should avoid clicking on or accessing playlist files - which have the file extension of .pls or .m3u - which have come from unknown sources. itunes is the world s most popular online music store with more than 200 million songs downloaded since it launched in 2003.

Science_and_Techology

lewis-francis turns to christie mark lewis-francis has stepped up his preparations for the new season by taking advice from british sprint icon linford christie. the 22-year-old is set to compete at sheffield this weekend and will then take on maurice greene and kim collins in birmingham on 18 february. training in wales and getting advice from linford christie is broadening my mind said lewis-francis. the sprinter has also shed weight since winning relay gold at the athens games. last year i was 91kg now i am 86.9kg - hopefully my times will come down he said. this has been brought about by eating the right foods and cutting out the snacks. it is just discipline and being more focused about what i am doing. i am still keeping up my weights work and i can see the improvement in my running. despite playing his part in britain s successful 4x100m relay team lewis-francis still feels the frustration of missing out on the individual 100m final at the 2004 olympics. that was heartbreaking but i had made it to the semi-final and for me on a personal level that was an achievement. i just have to be patient and build up for the next olympics. that is my goal and whatever i do between now and then will be geared to making the final.

Sports

algeria hit by further gas riots algeria suffered a weekend of violent protests against government plans to raise gas prices local press reports. demonstrators in a number of regions blocked roads attacked public buildings and overturned vehicles newspapers including el watan reported. the price of butane gas a vital fuel for cooking has risen to 200 dinars ($2.77) per canister from 170 dinars. even before the hike failing economic conditions had been fanning resentment in some of algeria s poorest regions. demonstrators took to the streets last week when the cost change was first announced but police seemed to have restored order. according to local press reports trouble flared up again on saturday and carried on into sunday. el watan said that a number of hot spots centred on the villages and towns close to bouira about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital algiers. among the other main areas affected were the western tiaret region and sidi ammar in the east of the country agence france presse (afp) reported. riots also flared up in the maghnia region close to the border with morocco in the west afp said. butane gas and fuel oil are used as the main source of fuel to heat homes and cook food in algeria s remote mountain areas.

Business

format wars could confuse users technology firms sony philips matsushita and samsung are developing a common way to stop people pirating digital music and video. the firms want to make a system that ensures files play on the hardware they make but also thwarts illegal copying. the move could mean more confusion for consumers already faced by many different and conflicting content control systems experts warned. they say there are no guarantees the system will even prevent piracy. currently many online stores wrap up downloadable files in an own-brand control system that means they can only be played on a small number of media players. systems that limit what people can do with the files they download are known as digital rights management systems. by setting up the alliance to work on a common control system the firms said they hope to end this current fragmentation of file formats. in a joint statement the firms said they wanted to let consumers enjoy appropriately licensed video and music on any device independent of how they originally obtained that content . the firms hope that it will also make it harder for consumers to make illegal copies of the music movies and other digital content they have bought. called the marlin joint development association the alliance will define basic specifications that every device made by the electronics firms will conform to. marlin will be built on technology from rights management firm intertrust as well as an earlier drm system developed by a group known as the coral consortium. the move is widely seen as a way for the four firms to decide their own destiny on content control systems instead of having to sign up for those being pushed by apple and microsoft. confusingly for consumers the technology that comes out of the alliance will sit alongside the content control systems of rival firms such as microsoft and apple. in many ways the different drm systems are akin to the different physical formats such as betamax and vhs that consumers have seen in the past said ian fogg personal technology and broadband analyst at jupiter research. the difference is that it is very fragmented he said. it s not a two-horse race it s a five six seven or even eight-horse race mr fogg said consumers had to be very careful when buying digital content to ensure that it would play on the devices they own. he said currently there were even incompatibilities within drm families. although initiatives such as microsoft s plays for sure program could help remove some of the uncertainty he said life was likely to be confusing for consumers for some time to come. shelley taylor analyst and author of a report about online music services said the locks and limits on digital files were done to maximise the cash that firms can make from consumers. apple s itunes service was a perfect example of this she said. although itunes has been hugely successful apple could not justify its existence if it did not help sell all those ipods she said. she said rampant competition between online music services of which there are now 230 according to recent figures could drive more openness and freer file formats. it always works out that consumer needs win out in the long run she said and the services that win in the long run are the ones that listen to consumers earliest. ms taylor said the limits legal download services place on files could help explain the continuing popularity of file-sharing systems that let people get hold of pirated pop. people want portability she said and with peer-to-peer they have 100% portability. cory doctorow european co-ordinator for the electronic frontier foundation which campaigns for consumers on many cyber-rights issues expressed doubts that the marlin system would achieve its aims. not one of these systems has ever prevented piracy or illegal copying he said. he said many firms readily admit that their drm systems are little protection against skilled attackers such as the organised crime gangs that are responsible for most piracy. instead said mr doctorow drm systems were intended to control the group that electronics firms have most hold over - consumers. the studios and labels perceive an opportunity to sell you your media again and again - the ipod version the auto version the american and uk version the ringtone version and so on.

Science_and_Techology

bush to outline toughest budget president bush is to send his toughest budget proposals to date to the us congress seeking large cuts in domestic spending to lower the deficit. about 150 federal programs could be cut or axed altogether as part of a $2.5 trillion (£1.3 trillion) package aimed at curbing the giant us budget deficit. defence spending will rise however while the proposals exclude the cost of continuing military operations in iraq. vice-president dick cheney said the budget was the tightest so far. at the heart of the administration s fifth budget presented to congress on monday is an austere package of domestic measures. these would see discretionary spending rise below the projected level of inflation. such belt-tightening is designed to tackle the massive budget deficit increases of president bush s first term. mr cheney admitted that the budget was the toughest of the bush presidency but argued it was fair and responsible . it is not something we have done with a meat axe nor are we suddenly turning our back on the most needy people in our society he said. the wars in iraq and afghanistan increased expenditure on national security after 9/11 and the 2001 recession wiped out the budget surplus inherited by president bush in 2001 and turned it into a record deficit. the shortfall is projected to rise to $427bn in 2005. education environmental protection and transport initiatives are set to be scaled back as a first step towards reducing the deficit to $230bn by 2009. most controversially the government is seeking to cut the medicaid budget which provides health care to the nation s poorest by $45bn and to reduce farm subsidies by $587m. spending on defence and homeland security is set to increase although not by as much as originally planned. president bush s proposals would see the pentagon s budget rise by $19bn to $419.3bn while homeland security would get an extra $2bn. the budget does not include the cost of running military operations in iraq and afghanistan for which the administration in expected to seek an extra $80bn from congress later this year. also not featuring in the proposals is the cost of funding the administration s radical proposed overhaul of social security provision. some expects believe this could require borrowing of up to $4.5bn trillion over a twenty year period. despite the republicans holding a majority in both houses of congress the proposals will be fiercely contested over the next few months. john mccain a republican senator said he was pleased the administration was prepared to tackle the deficit. with the deficits that we are now running i am glad the president is coming over with a very austere budget he said. however democratic senator kent conrad said the proposals exposed the country to huge financial commitments beyond 2009. the cost of everything he [president bush] advocates explodes he said.

Business

firefox browser takes on microsoft microsoft s internet explorer has a serious rival in the long-awaited firefox 1.0 web browser which has just been released. few people get excited when some new software is released especially when the program is not a game or a music or movie player. but the release of the first full version of firefox has managed to drum up a respectable amount of pre-launch fervour. fans of the software have banded together to raise cash to pay for an advert in the new york times announcing that version 1.0 of the browser is available. the release of firefox 1.0 on 9 november might even cause a few heads to turn at microsoft because the program is steadily winning people away from the software giant s internet explorer browser. firefox has been created by the mozilla foundation which was started by former browser maker netscape back in 1998. much of the development work done since then has gone into firefox which made its first appearance under this name in february. earlier incarnations but which had the same core technology were called phoenix and firebird. since then the software has been gaining praise and converts not least because of the large number of security problems that have come to light in microsoft s internet explorer. rivals to ie got a boost in late june when two us computer security organisations warned people to avoid the microsoft program to avoid falling victim to a serious vulnerability. internet monitoring firm websidestory has charted the growing population of people using the firefox browser and says it is responsible for slowly eroding the stranglehold of ie. before july this year according to websidestory internet explorer was used by about 95% of web surfers. that figure had remained static for years. in july the ie using population dropped to 94.7% and by the end of october stood at 92.9%. the mozilla foundation claims that firefox has been downloaded almost eight million times and has publicly said it would be happy to garner 10% of the windows- using net-browsing population. firefox is proving popular because at the moment it has far fewer security holes than internet explorer and has some innovations lacking in microsoft s program. for instance firefox allows the pages of different websites to be arranged as tabs so users can switch easily between them. it blocks pop-ups has a neat way of finding text on a page and lets you search through the pages you have browsed. one of the most powerful features of firefox is the many hundreds of extras or extensions produced for it. the mozilla foundation is an open source organisation which means that the creators of the browser are happy for others to play around with the core code for the program. this has resulted in many different add-ons or extensions for the browser which now include everything from a version of the familiar google toolbar to a homeland security monitor that keep users aware of current threat levels. firefox which used to be called firebird and before that phoenix also has a growing number of vocal net-based fans. a campaign co-ordinated by the spread firefox website attempted to raise the $50 000 needed for a full page advert in the new york times. the campaign set itself a target of recruiting 2500 volunteers. ten days in to the campaign 10 000 people had signed up and now about $250 000 has been raised. the ad is due to run sometime in a three-week period in late november/early december. the surplus cash will be used to help keep the mozilla foundation running. microsoft is facing a growing challenge to ie s hold on the web using population. from alternative browsers such as opera safari amaya and even netscape.

Science_and_Techology

eu software patent law faces axe the european parliament has thrown out a bill that would have allowed software to be patented. politicians unanimously rejected the bill and now it must go through another round of consultation if it is to have a chance of becoming law. during consultation the software patents bill could be substantially re-drafted or even scrapped. the bill was backed by some hi-tech firms saying they needed protections it offered to make research worthwhile. hugo lueders european director for public policy at comptia an umbrella organization for technology companies said only when intellectual property was adequately protected would european inventors prosper. he said the benefits of the bill had been obscured by special interest groups which muddied debate over the rights and wrongs of software patents. other proponents of the bill said it was a good compromise that avoided the excesses of the american system which allows the patenting of business practices as well as software. but opponents of the bill said that it could stifle innovation be abused by firms keen to protect existing monopolies and could hamper the growth of the open source movement. the proposed law had a troubled passage through the european parliament. its progress was delayed twice when polish meps rejected plans to adopt it. also earlier this month the influential european legal affairs committee (juri) said the law should be re-drafted after it failed to win the support of meps. to become law both the european parliament and a qualified majority of eu states have to approve of the draft wording of the bill. the latest rejection means that now the bill on computer inventions must go back to the eu for re-consideration.

Science_and_Techology

ea to take on film and tv giants video game giant electronic arts (ea) says it wants to become the biggest entertainment firm in the world. the us firm says it wants to compete with companies such as disney and will only achieve this by making games appeal to mainstream audiences. ea publishes blockbuster titles such as fifa and john madden as well as video game versions of movies such as harry potter and the james bond films. its revenues were $3bn (£1.65bn) in 2004 which ea hoped to double by 2009. ea is the biggest games publisher in the world and in 2004 had 27 titles which sold in excess of one million copies each. nine of the 20 biggest-selling games in the uk last year were published by ea. gerhard florin ea s managing director for european publishing said: doubling our industry in five years is not rocket science. he said it would take many years before ea could challenge disney - which in 2004 reported revenues of $30bn (£16bn) - but it remained a goal for the company. we will be able to bring more people into gaming because games will be more emotional. mr florin predicted that the next round of games console would give developers enough power to create real emotion. it s the subtleties the eyes the mouth - 5 000 polygons doesn t really sell the emotion. with ps3 and xbox 2 we can go on the main character with 30 000 to 50 000 polygons he said. with that increased firepower the finding nemo video game looks just like the movie but it will be interactive. mr florin said that more than 50% of all ea s games were sold to adults and played by adults but the perception remained that the video game industry was for children. our goal is to bring games to the masses which bring out emotions. ea said the video game industry was now bigger than the music industry. nobody queues for music anymore. you can t ignore an industry when people queue to buy a game at midnight because they are so desperate to play it he said referring to demand for titles for such as grand theft auto: san andreas and halo 2. jan bolz ea s vice president of sales and marketing in europe said the firm was working to give video games a more central role in popular culture. he said the company was in advanced stages of discussions over a reality tv show in which viewers could control the actions of the characters as in its popular game the sims. one idea could be that you re controlling a family telling them when to go to the kitchen and when to go to the bedroom and with this mechanism you have gamers all over the world playing the show said mr bolz. he also said ea was planning an international awards show similar to the oscars and the grammys which would combine video games music and movies. mr bolz said video games firm had to work more closely with celebrities. people will want to play video games if their heroes like robbie williams or christina aguilera are in them. mr florin said the challenge was to keep people playing in their 30s 40s and 50s. there s an indication that a 30 year old comes home from work and still wants to play games. if that s true that s a big challenge for tv broadcasters - because watching tv is the biggest pastime at present.

Science_and_Techology

davenport puts retirement on hold lindsay davenport has put any talk of retirement on hold after having a largely injury-free 2004 campaign. the 28-year-old world number one had said that she would quit at the end of last year but after a successful season she has had a change of heart. finally i felt i put myself in a position to try and win grand slams again said davenport. it would be tough to walk away when i feel like i can contend so there s no point in hanging it up quite yet. davenport has won three grand slams the 2000 australian open wimbledon in 1999 and the 1998 us open. her career has been hit by a series of injuries but last year she started hitting top form and won seven titles. she was due to take part in this week s hopman cup in perth but decided she wanted to rest her knee. i just really wanted to make sure my right knee was going to be able to really withstand all the rigours of the whole year coming up she said.

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xbox 2 may be unveiled in summer details of the next generation of microsoft s xbox games console - codenamed xenon - will most likely be unveiled in may according to reports. it was widely expected that gamers would get a sneak preview of xbox s successor at the game developers conference (gdc) in march. but a microsoft spokeswoman confirmed that it would not be at gdc. sony microsoft and nintendo are all expected to release their more powerful machines in the next 18 months. the next xbox console is expected to go on sale at the end of the year but very few details about it have been released. it is thought that the machine may be unveiled at the electronic entertainment expo (e3) in los angeles which takes place in may according to a reuters news agency report. e3 concentrates on showing off the latest in gaming to publishers marketers and retailers. the gdc is aimed more at game developers. microsoft chief bill gates used the gdc event to unveil the original xbox five years ago. since its launch microsoft has sold 19.9 million units worldwide. at the consumer electronics show earlier this year there was very little mention of the next generation gaming machine. in his keynote speech mr gates only referred to it as playing an essential part of his vision of the digital lifestyle. but the battle between the rival consoles to win gamers hearts and thumbs will be extremely hard-fought. sony has traditionally dominated the console market with its playstation 2. but earlier this year microsoft said it had reached a european milestone selling five million consoles since its european launch in march 2002. hit games like halo 2 which was released in november helped to buoy the sales figures. gamers are looking forward to the next generation of machines because they will have much more processing and graphical power. they are also likely to pack in more features and technologies that make them more central as entertainment and communications hubs. although details of playstation 3 xenon and nintendo s so-called revolution are yet to be finalised developers are already working on titles. rory armes studio general manager for games giant electronic arts (ea) in europe recently told the bbc news website in an interview that ea was beginning to get a sense of the capabilities of the new machines. microsoft had delivered development kits to ea but he said the company was still waiting on sony and nintendo s kits. but he added the playstation 3 was rumoured to have a little more under the hood [than xbox 2] .

Science_and_Techology

bargain calls widen softbank loss japanese communications firm softbank has widened losses after heavy spending on a new cut-rate phone service. the service launched in december and dubbed otoku or bargain has had almost 900 000 orders softbank said. the firm a market leader in high-speed internet had an operating loss for the three months to december of 7.5bn yen ($71.5m; £38.4m). but without the otoku marketing spend it would have made a profit - and expects to move into the black in 2006. the firm did not give a figure for the extent of profits it expected to make next year. it was born in the 1990s tech boom investing widely and becoming a fast-rising star till the end of the tech bubble hit it hard. its recent return to a high profile came with the purchase of japan telecom the country s third-biggest fixed-line telecoms firm. the acquisition spurred its broadband internet division to pole position in the japanese market with more than 5.1 million subscribers at the end of december.

Business

lacroix label bought by us firm luxury goods group lvmh has sold its loss-making christian lacroix clothing label to a us investment group. the paris-based firm has been shedding non-core businesses and focusing on its most profitable brands including moet & chandon champagne and louis vuitton. lvmh said the french designer s haute couture and ready-to-wear labels had been purchased by the falic group for an unspecified sum. the falic group bought two cosmetics labels from lvmh in 2003. the sale of the lacroix label comes as many fashion houses are struggling to make money from their expensive haute couture ranges. the florida-based falic group which also runs a chain of 90 duty free stores in the us said it planned to expand the brand by opening new stores. mr lacroix said he planned to stay at the label he founded in 1987 although exact details are still to be confirmed.

Business

text message record smashed uk mobile owners continue to break records with their text messaging with latest figures showing that 26 billion texts were sent in total in 2004. the figures collected by the mobile data association (mda) showed that 2.4 billion were fired off in december alone the highest monthly total ever. that was 26% more than in december 2003. the records even surpassed the mda s own predictions it said. every day 78 million messages are sent and there are no signs of a slow down. before december s bumper text record the previous highest monthly total was in october 2004 when 2.3 billion were sent. text messaging is set to smash more records in 2005 too said the mda with forecasts suggesting a total of 30 billion for the year. even though mobiles are becoming increasingly sophisticated with much more multimedia applications texting is still one of the most useful functions of mobiles. people are using sms to do much more too. booking cinema tickets text voting and news or sports text alerts are growing popular. mobile owners have also given the chance to donate to the disasters emergency committee s (dec) asian tsunami fund by texting donate to a simple short code number. looking further ahead in the year the mda s chairman mike short has predicted that more people will go online through their mobiles estimating 15 billion wap page impressions. handsets with gprs capability - an always on net connection - will rise to 75% while 3g mobile ownership growing to five million by the end of 2005. these third generation mobiles offer a high-speed connection which means more data like video can be received on the phone. globally mobile phone sales passed 167 million in the third quarter of 2004 according to a recent report from analysts gartner. that was 26% more than the previous year. it is predicted that there would be two billion handsets in use worldwide by the end of 2005.

Science_and_Techology

london irish 19-33 wasps wasps made light of the absence of several internationals to sink london irish with a trio of second-half tries. rob hoadley returned to haunt his old club at the madejski stadium scoring the opening try in the 43rd minute. tom voyce powered through the irish defence for wasps second try before richard birkett went over unchallenged. mark van gisbergen added 18 points. irish replied with three penalties and a mark mapletoft drop goal before scott staniforth ran in a consolation try. barry everitt who replaced mapletoft late in the game added the conversion to become the fourth premiership player to reach 1 000 points. he joins jonny wilkinson tim stimpson and paul grayson in achieving that target. wasps piled on the pressure in an attempt to grab a fourth try which would have secured them a bonus point but they were denied by some desperate defending from irish. director of rugby warren gatland revealed that harsh words at half-time inspired his wasps side to raise their game after the restart. they got a roasting and it was a good second-half performance when they came out and played to instructions he said. gatland also singled out stand-in flankers tom rees and john hart for special praise. they did very well. the back row played some fantastic rugby he added. london irish coach gary gold felt the result exposed his side s lack of consistency. irish trailed by just two points at the break and gold said: for 55 minutes we lived with the best but we have got to get back for the full 80 minutes. gold will now turn his attention to next week s powergen cup semi-final at struggling leeds. we ve got a good chance but with leeds facing possible relegation they re going to come out firing he added. horak staniforth penney nordt bishop; mapletoft edwards; hatley van der walt hardwick; kennedy casey; gustard dawson murphy. replacements: everitt for mapletoft (53) hodgson for edwards (77) wheatley for hatley (71) paice for van der walt (60) strudwick for kennedy (60) danaher for gustard (66) reid for murphy (47) van gisbergen; voyce erinle hoadley roberts; king richards; payne greening dowd; shaw purdy; hart rees dallaglio. replacements: priscott for roberts (71) green for dowd (71) skivington for shaw (71) birkett for hart (57) gotting for rees (39). not used: fury brooks

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o leary agrees new villa contract aston villa boss david o leary signed a three-and-a-half year contract extension on thursday securing his future at the club until summer 2008. o leary s future was in question but villa chairman doug ellis said he was happy to secure the deal. david s record since his arrival in 2003 is excellent and he shares the board s amibitions in taking this club forward he told villa s website. for this reason it was important we got this right. o leary put pen to paper after deals were sorted for his right-hand men roy aitken and steve mcgregor. it was important to me roy and steve an integral part of my team should stay for the same time o leary said on thursday ahead of signing his new deal. someone has to try and put aston villa back where they should belong and i m up for the challenge. earlier in december there were rumours o leary would quit if he is not offered a new deal before the end of the season. but he denied that saying he was happy to take on the challenge of improving villa s fortunes in the long term. i want to make sure by the end of the five years i would have been in charge that villa are achieving top six finishes in the premiership on a regular basis said o leary who took over at villa park in may 2003. but to achieve that and take the next step forward we do need to bring in quality players. i would like a couple next month if at all possible to set us on the way. meanwhile o leary has rapped skipper olof mellberg for his comments before sunday s derby with birmingham. mellberg spoke of his dislike of villa s rivals ahead of the match which steve bruce s side won 2-1. i ve had more than a quiet word with olof. it s been said within the whole group not as a one-to-one he told villa s website. you shouldn t leave yourself open to be shot down. you shouldn t give people the chance to take cheap shots at you and he set himself up for that.

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bank set to leave rates on hold uk interest rates are set to remain on hold at 4.75% following the latest meeting of the bank of england. the bank s rate-setting committee has put up rates five times in the past year but rates have been on hold since september amid signs of a slowdown. economic growth slowed in the previous quarter as manufacturing output fell while consumer confidence has slipped. there is also growing evidence that the previously booming uk housing market is now cooling. house prices fell 0.4% in october according to the nationwide their biggest monthly fall since february 2001. last month bank of england governor mervyn king said that the economy had hit a softer patch after rapid economic growth in the first half of 2004. richard jeffrey chief economist at bridgewell securities said it was very unlikely that the bank of england would put rates up again this time around. there have been sufficient signs in the economy of a slowdown to stay the bank of england s hand he told bbc radio 4 s today programme. however mr jeffrey said he believed the slowdown in economic activity was temporary and it was dangerous to assume that rates had peaked. i still think interest rates are going up he said. we are not out of the woods.

Business

hollywood campaign hits websites movie studio efforts to stop pirated films being shared on peer-to-peer networks have claimed a high-profile victim. the campaign of legal action is thought to be behind the closure of the widely used suprnova.org website. the site was the most popular place for people swapping and sharing links for the bittorrent network. a recent study showed that more than half of the peer-to-peer traffic during june was for the bittorrent system. in a message posted on suprnova.org on sunday the site s controllers said the site was closing down for good in the way that we all know it . if the site did return the message said it would not be hosting any more torrent links. it continued: we are very sorry for this but there was no other way we have tried everything. the only parts that would keep going said the operators of the suprnova site were the discussion forums and net chat channels. the site is thought to have closed following an announcement by the motion picture association of america that it was launching legal action against those operating bittorrent servers rather than end users. because of the way that bittorrent works server sites do not host the actual file being shared instead they host a link that points people to others that have it. by targeting servers the mpaa hopes to cripple bittorrent s ability to share files. in the opening days of the mpaa campaign the organisation filed 100 lawsuits against operators of bittorrent server site. the launching of the legal seems to be having an effect. phoenix torrents another popular bittorrent site has also decided to shut down and though it gave no reasons for the closure it is thought to be motivated by the threat of legal action. last week finnish police raided a bittorrent site based in the country that according to reports let 10 000 users shared pirated films software music and games.

Science_and_Techology

yahoo celebrates a decade online yahoo one of the net s most iconic companies is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week. the web portal has undergone remarkable change since it was set up by stanford university students david filo and jerry yang in a campus trailer. the students wanted a way of keeping track of their web-based interests. the categories lists they devised soon became popular to hundreds of people and the two saw business potential in their idea. originally dubbed jerry s guide to the world wide web the firm adopted the moniker yahoo because the founders liked the dictionary definition of a yahoo as a rude unsophisticated uncouth person. the term was popularised by the 18th century satirist jonathan swift in his classic novel gulliver s travels. we were certainly not sophisticated or civilised mr yang told reporters ahead of the anniversary which will be officially recognised on 2 march. they did have business brains however and in april 1995 persuaded venture capitalists sequoia capital which also invested in apple computer and cisco systems to fund yahoo to the tune of $2m (£1.04m). a second round of funding followed in the autumn and the company floated in april 1996 with less than 50 employees. now the firm employs 7 600 workers and insists its dot com culture of work hard play hard still remains. it is one of just a handful of survivors of the dot-com crash although it now faces intense rivalry from firms such as google msn and aol. jerry yang who remains the firm s chief yahoo is proud of what the company has achieved. in just one decade the internet has changed the way consumers do just about everything - and it s been a remarkable and wonderful experience he said. through it all we wanted to build products that satisfied our users wants and needs but it s even more than that - it s to help every one of us to discover get more done share and interact.

Science_and_Techology

wright-phillips to start on right england coach sven-goran eriksson has revealed shaun wright-phillips will start against the netherlands. but wright-phillips will not make his first start for england playing on the left as had been widely expected. shaun wright-phillips will probably start the game said eriksson. but i m not going to start wright-phillips on the left. eriksson also revealed that wes brown will start alongside jamie carragher in the injury-hit centre of defence. when asked if brown and carragher would start eriksson replied: i could tell you yes. it s a blow that four or five central defenders are away because of injuries. on the other hand it s good for carragher and brown to show what they can do at this level. that s positive. the england coach said that he had been impressed by wright-phillips form for manchester city. he deserves his chance. he has been playing well all season and i look forward to seeing him. and he added that andy johnson and stewart downing - the other two new players in the squad - would also get a chance to impress. wright-phillips downing and johnson will start or get the chance to play some part. johnson was not in my plans a year ago but he is doing a great season and scoring a lot of goals. downing is another one making a great season. he is young talented and there are not too many left-footed players in the squad.

Sports

file-swappers ready new network legal attacks on websites that help people swap pirated films have forced the development of a system that could be harder to shut down. one site behind the success of the bittorrent file-swapping system is producing its own software that avoids the pitfalls of the earlier program. a test version of the new exeem program will be released in late january. but doubts remain about the new networks ability to ensure files being swapped are quality copies . in late december movie studios launched a legal campaign against websites that helped people swap pirated movies using the bittorrent network. the legal campaign worked because of the way that bittorrent is organised. that file-sharing system relies on links called trackers that point users to others happy to share the file they are looking for. shutting down sites that listed trackers crippled the bittorrent network. one of the sites shut down by the legal campaign was suprnova.org which helped boost the popularity of the bittorrent system by checking that trackers led to the movies or tv programmes they claimed to. now the man behind suprnova.org who goes by the nickname sloncek is preparing to release software for a new file-swapping network dubbed exeem. in an interview with novastream web radio sloncek said exeem would combine ideas from the bittorrent and kazaa file-sharing systems. like bittorrent exeem will have trackers that help point people toward the file they want. like kazaa these trackers will be held by everyone. there will be no centrally maintained list. this said sloncek should make the system less vulnerable to legal action aimed at stopping people swapping pirated movies and music. the exeem software has been under development for a few months and is currently being tested by a closed group of users. an early public version of the software should be available before february. sloncek said that currently only a windows version of the software was in development. there were no plans for a linux or mac version. he said that costs of writing the software will be paid for by adverts appearing in the finished version of the program. despite suprnova administrator sloncek s involvement with exeem the basic technology appears to have been developed by a firm called swarm systems that is based on caribbean island saint kitts and nevis. users of the exeem system will be able to rate files being swapped to help stop the spread of fake files sloncek told novastream. dr johan pouwelse a researcher at the delft university of technology who studies peer-to-peer networks said exeem was the next evolution in file-sharing systems. but he said it would struggle to be as popular as bittorrent and suprnova because early versions were not taking enough care to make sure good copies of files were being shared. exeem cannot prevent pollution he said. the rating system in exeem seems flawed because it is easy to insert both fake files and fake ratings he said. studies have shown that organisations working for record labels and movie studios have worked to undermine kazaa by putting in fakes. by contrast moderators on suprnova made sure files being shared were high quality. the moderators are the difference between having a system that works and one that s full of crap like kazaa he said. there is a fundamental tension between distribution and integrity he said. mr pouwelse said that future versions of file-sharing systems are likely to incorporate some kind of distributed reputation system that lets moderators prove who they are to the network and rate which files are worth downloading. when big files were being shared moderation systems were key said mr pouwelse. he added that the legal attacks on bittorrent had driven people away from sites such as suprnova but many users had simply migrated to other tracker listing sites many of which have seen huge increases in traffic. it s hard to compete with free he said. no-one from the motion picture association of america was immediately available for comment on the file-sharing development.

Science_and_Techology

diageo to buy us wine firm diageo the world s biggest spirits company has agreed to buy californian wine company chalone for $260m (£134m) in an all-cash deal. although diageo s best-known brands include smirnoff vodka and guinness stout it already has a us winemaking arm - diageo chateau & estate wines. diageo said it expects to get us regulatory approval for the deal during the first quarter of 2005. it said chalone would be integrated into its existing us wine business. the us wine market represents a growth opportunity for diageo with favourable demographic and consumption trends said diageo north america president ivan menezes. in july diageo which is listed on the london stock exchange reported an annual turnover of £8.89bn down from £9.28bn a year earlier. it blamed a weaker dollar for its lower turnover. in the year ending 31 december 2003 chalone reported revenues of $69.4m.

Business

china blocks google news site china has been accused of blocking access to google news by the media watchdog reporters without borders. the paris-based pressure group said the english-language news site had been unavailable for the past 10 days. it said the aim was to force people to use a chinese edition of the site which according to the watchdog does not include critical reports. google told the bbc news website it was aware of the problems and was investigating the causes. china is believed to extend greater censorship over the net than any other country in the world. a net police force monitors websites and e-mails and controls on gateways connecting the country to the global internet are designed to prevent access to critical information. popular chinese portals such as sina.com and sohu.com maintain a close eye on content and delete politically sensitive comments. and all 110 000 net cafes in the country have to use software to control access to websites considered harmful or subversive. china is censoring google news to force internet users to use the chinese version of the site which has been purged of the most critical news reports said the group in a statement. by agreeing to launch a news service that excludes publications disliked by the government google has let itself be used by beijing it said. for its part the search giant said it was looking into the issue. it appears that many users in china are having difficulty accessing google news sites in china and we are working to understand and resolve the issue said a google spokesperson. google news gathers information from some 4 500 news sources. headlines are selected for display entirely by a computer algorithm with no human editorial intervention. it offers 15 editions of the service including one tailored for china and one for hong kong. google launched a version in simplified chinese in september. the site does not filter news results to remove politically sensitive information. but google does not link to news sources which are inaccessible from within china as this would result in broken links.

Science_and_Techology

ireland 21-19 argentina an injury-time dropped goal by ronan o gara stole victory for ireland from underneath the noses of argentina at lansdowne road on saturday. o gara kicked all of ireland s points with two dropped goals and five penalties to give the home side a 100% record in their autumn internationals. an impressive argentina appeared in control until the dying seconds. the pumas shocked the irish early on with a try from federico aramburu and felipe contepomi kicked 14 points. the well-drilled and sharper pumas out-played and out-thought ireland in the early stages. indiscipline allowed argentina s leinster fly-half contepomi to open the scoring in the third minute with a straightforward penalty. he was on the mark again two minutes later when argentina shocked a ragged ireland with the first try of the game. ireland turned the ball over and manuel contepomi broke through an unstructured defence before feeding his midfield partner aramburu to sprint in under the posts. o gara finally got ireland on the board with a dropped goal in the ninth minute only for contepomi to rifle over his second penalty two minutes later. playing into a strong wind and rain ireland continued to come second best in tight situations and turnovers began to mount up against a rugged defence. o gara managed to land his second penalty in the 36th minute but once again contepomi replied in kind four minutes into first-half injury time. the second-half started as the first had ended. o gara rifled over another penalty in the 45th minute but contepomi matched it three minutes later. the upper-body strength of the pumas never allowed ireland to take control up front while the three-quarters had no space to manoeuvre. ireland had to rely on o gara s boot to keep in touch rather than any contrived running plays. the munsterman landed two more penalties - one of them from 48 metres - to bring his team to within four points with 13 minutes on the clock remaining. and ireland s chance came when argentina s number eight gonzalo longo was yellow carded with six minutes to go for an offence in the line-out. o gara made no mistake as he rifled over his fifth penalty to set up a tense final few minutes. but ireland showed great composure to get themselves into a position to allow o gara to thump over a massive drop goal to complete a tremendous if fortuitous comeback.

Sports

cars pull down us retail figures us retail sales fell 0.3% in january the biggest monthly decline since last august driven down by a heavy fall in car sales. the 3.3% fall in car sales had been expected coming after december s 4% rise in car sales fuelled by generous pre-christmas special offers. excluding the car sector us retail sales were up 0.6% in january twice what some analysts had been expecting. us retail spending is expected to rise in 2005 but not as quickly as in 2004. steve gallagher us chief economist at sg corporate & investment banking said january s figures were decent numbers . we are not seeing the numbers that we saw in the second half of 2004 but they are still pretty healthy he added. sales at appliance and electronic stores were down 0.6% in january while sales at hardware stores dropped by 0.3% and furniture store sales dipped 0.1%. sales at clothing and clothing accessory stores jumped 1.8% while sales at general merchandise stores a category that includes department stores rose by 0.9%. these strong gains were in part put down to consumers spending gift vouchers they had been given for christmas. sales at restaurants bars and coffee houses rose by 0.3% while grocery store sales were up 0.5%. in december overall retail sales rose by 1.1%. excluding the car sector sales rose by just 0.3%. parul jain deputy chief economist at nomura securities international said consumer spending would continue to rise in 2005 only at a slower rate of growth than in 2004. consumers continue to retain their strength in the first quarter he said. van rourke a bond strategist at popular securities agreed that the latest retail sales figures were slightly stronger than expected .

Business

india s rupee hits five-year high india s rupee has hit a five-year high after standard & poor s (s&p) raised the country s foreign currency rating. the rupee climbed to 43.305 per us dollar on thursday up from a close of 43.41. the currency has gained almost 1% in the past three sessions. s&p which rates borrowers creditworthiness lifted india s rating by one notch to bb+ . with indian assets now seen as less of a gamble more cash is expected to flow into its markets buoying the rupee. the upgrade is positive and basically people will use it as an excuse to come back to india said bhanu baweja a strategist at ubs. money has moved out from india in the first two or three weeks of january into other markets like korea and thailand and this upgrade should lead to a reversal. india s foreign currency rating is now one notch below investment grade which starts at bbb- . the increase has put it on the same level as romania egypt and el salvador and one level below russia.

Business

who do you think you are the real danger is not what happens to your data as it crosses the net argues analyst bill thompson. it is what happens when it arrives at the other end. the financial services authority has warned banks and other financial institutions that members of criminal gangs may be applying for jobs which give them access to confidential customer data. the fear is not that they will steal money from our bank accounts but that they will instead steal something far more valuable in our digital society - our identities. armed with the personal details that a bank holds plus a fake letter or two it is apparently easy to get a loan open a bank account with an overdraft or get a credit card in someone else s name. and it is then a simple matter to move the money into another account and leave the unwitting victim to sort out the mess when statements and demands for payment start arriving. identity theft is an increasingly significant economic crime and we are all becoming more aware of the dangers of leaving bills receipts and bank statements unshredded in our rubbish. but however careful you may be if the organisations you trust with your personal data bank accounts and credit cards are not able to look after their databases properly then you are in trouble. it is surprising that it has taken the gangs so long to realise that a well-placed insider is by far the simplest way to break the security of a computer system. in fact i suspect that the fsa is probably very late to this particular party and that this sort of thing has been going on for rather a long time. has anyone checked bob cratchit s family links to the criminal underworld i wonder and it is hardly likely to be only banks that are being targeted. health authorities government agencies and of course the big e-commerce sites like amazon must also offer rich pickings for the fraudsters. the good news is that better auditing is likely to catch out those who access account details that they are not supposed to. and as we all become aware of the danger of identity theft and look more carefully for unexpected transactions on our statements banks should have good enough records and logs to trace the people who might have accessed the account details. fortunately there are now ways to keep bank systems more secure from the sort of data theft that involves taking a portable hard drive or flash memory card into the office plugging it into a usb slot and sucking down customer files. companies like securewave for example can restrict the use of usb ports just to authorised devices or even to an individual s personal memory card. these solutions are not perfect but it does not feel like a wave of fraud is about to wash away the entire financial system. however the warning does highlight one of the major issues with e-commerce and online trading - the security or otherwise of the servers and other systems that make up the back office . it has been clear for years that the real danger in paying for goods online with a credit card is not that the number will be intercepted in transit but that the shop you are dealing with will be hacked. in fact i do not know of a single case where an e-mail containing payment details has led to card fraud. there are simply too many e-mails passing over the net for interception to be a sensible tool for anyone out to commit fraud. cd universe powergen and many other companies have left their databases open and suffered the consequences. and just last week the online bank cahoot admitted that its customer account details could be read by anyone who could guess a login name. whether it is external hackers breaking in because of poor system security or internal staff abusing the access they get as part of their job the issue is the same: how do we make sure that our personal data is not abused any organisation that processes personal data is of course bound by the data protection act and must take proper care of it. unauthorised disclosure is not allowed but the penalties are small and the process of prosecuting under the act so convoluted as to be worthless in practice. this is not something we can just leave it to the market. the consequences of having one s identity stolen are too serious and markets respond too slowly. after all i bank with cahoot but it would be so much hassle to move my accounts that i did not even consider it when i heard about their security problems. i doubt many others have closed their accounts especially when there is little guarantee that other banks are not going to make the same sort of mistake in future. the two options would seem to be more stringent data protection law so that companies really feel the pressure to improve their internal processes or a wave of civil lawsuits against financial institutions with sloppy practices whose customers suffer from identity theft. i have never felt comfortable with the us practice of suing everything that moves partly because it seems to make lawyers richer than their clients so i know which i d prefer. bill thompson is a regular commentator on the bbc world service programme go digital.

Science_and_Techology

fed chief warning on us deficit federal reserve chairman alan greenspan has warned that allowing huge us budget deficits to continue could have severe consequences. speaking to the house budget committee he urged congress to take action to cut the deficit such as increasing taxes. while the us economy is growing at a reasonably good pace he warned that budget concerns were clouding the economic outlook for the us. pension and healthcare costs posed the greatest risks to the economy he said. the government program faces severe financial strains in coming decades as the massive baby-boom generation retires. i fear that we may have already committed more physical resources to the baby-boom generation in its retirement years than our economy has the capacity to deliver. if existing promises need to be changed those changes should be made sooner rather than later mr greenspan said. he also warned that unless the nation sees unprecedented rises in productivity retirement and health programmes would need significant changes. he called on congress to cut promised benefits for retirees as the promised benefits for the soon-to-retire baby boom generation were much larger than the government could afford. meanwhile any move to narrow the deficit gap by raising taxes could pose a significant risk to the economy by dampening growth and spending he added. he also urged congress to reinstate lapsed rules that require tax cuts and spending to be offset elsewhere in the budget in an effort to prevent the us heading further into the red. despite the dire warnings mr greenspan did offer some good news for the short term. as us growth gathers steam and incomes rise that should lead to a narrowing of the deficit. recent increases in defence and homeland security spending were also not expected to continue indefinitely which should cut some costs. since president george w bush came to office the federal budget has swung from a record surplus to a record deficit of $412bn last year.

Business

verizon seals takeover of mci verizon has won a takeover battle for us phone firm mci with a bid worth $6.8bn (£3.6bn) reports say. the two firms are expected to seal the deal on monday morning according to news agency reports despite what was thought to be a higher bid from qwest. the us telecoms market is consolidating fast with former long-distance giant at&t being bought by former subsidiary sbc earlier this year for $16bn. mci exited bankruptcy in april having gone bust under previous name worldcom. the bankruptcy followed its admission in 2002 that it illegally booked expenses and inflated profits. shareholders lost about $180bn when the company collapsed while 20 000 workers lost their jobs. former worldcom boss bernie ebbers is currently on trial accused of overseeing an $11bn fraud. qwest has itself come under suspicion of sub-standard behaviour paying the securities and exchange commission $250m in october to settle charges that it manipulated its results to keep wall street happy. mci is the us s second-biggest long distance firm after at&t. consolidation in the us telecommunications industry has picked up in the past few months as companies look to cut costs and boost client bases. a merger between mci and verizon would be the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since october. last week sbc communications agreed to buy its former parent and phone trailblazer at&t for about $16bn. buying mci would give either qwest or verizon access to mci s global network and business-based subscribers. the rationale is similar to the one underpinning sbc s at&t deal. verizon is by far the bigger company and has its own successful mobile arm - factors which may have swung the board in its favour since both suitors are offering a mixture of cash and shares.

Business

ink helps drive democracy in asia the kyrgyz republic a small mountainous state of the former soviet republic is using invisible ink and ultraviolet readers in the country s elections as part of a drive to prevent multiple voting. this new technology is causing both worries and guarded optimism among different sectors of the population. in an effort to live up to its reputation in the 1990s as an island of democracy the kyrgyz president askar akaev pushed through the law requiring the use of ink during the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections. the us government agreed to fund all expenses associated with this decision. the kyrgyz republic is seen by many experts as backsliding from the high point it reached in the mid-1990s with a hastily pushed through referendum in 2003 reducing the legislative branch to one chamber with 75 deputies. the use of ink is only one part of a general effort to show commitment towards more open elections - the german embassy the soros foundation and the kyrgyz government have all contributed to purchase transparent ballot boxes. the actual technology behind the ink is not that complicated. the ink is sprayed on a person s left thumb. it dries and is not visible under normal light. however the presence of ultraviolet light (of the kind used to verify money) causes the ink to glow with a neon yellow light. at the entrance to each polling station one election official will scan voter s fingers with uv lamp before allowing them to enter and every voter will have his/her left thumb sprayed with ink before receiving the ballot. if the ink shows under the uv light the voter will not be allowed to enter the polling station. likewise any voter who refuses to be inked will not receive the ballot. these elections are assuming even greater significance because of two large factors - the upcoming parliamentary elections are a prelude to a potentially regime changing presidential election in the autumn as well as the echo of recent elections in other former soviet republics notably ukraine and georgia. the use of ink has been controversial - especially among groups perceived to be pro-government. widely circulated articles compared the use of ink to the rural practice of marking sheep - a still common metaphor in this primarily agricultural society. the author of one such article began a petition drive against the use of the ink. the greatest part of the opposition to ink has often been sheer ignorance. local newspapers have carried stories that the ink is harmful radioactive or even that the ultraviolet readers may cause health problems. others such as the aggressively middle of the road coalition of non-governmental organizations have lauded the move as an important step forward. this type of ink has been used in many elections in the world in countries as varied as serbia south africa indonesia and turkey. the other common type of ink in elections is indelible visible ink - but as the elections in afghanistan showed improper use of this type of ink can cause additional problems. the use of invisible ink is not without its own problems. in most elections numerous rumors have spread about it. in serbia for example both christian and islamic leaders assured their populations that its use was not contrary to religion. other rumours are associated with how to remove the ink - various soft drinks solvents and cleaning products are put forward. however in reality the ink is very effective at getting under the cuticle of the thumb and difficult to wash off. the ink stays on the finger for at least 72 hours and for up to a week. the use of ink and readers by itself is not a panacea for election ills. the passage of the inking law is nevertheless a clear step forward towards free and fair elections. the country s widely watched parliamentary elections are scheduled for 27 february. david mikosz works for the ifes an international non-profit organisation that supports the building of democratic societies.

Science_and_Techology

yahoo moves into desktop search internet giant yahoo has launched software to allow people to search e-mail and other files on their pcs. the firm is following in the footsteps of microsoft google and ask jeeves which have offered similar services. search has become a lucrative and hotly-contested area of expansion for net firms looking to extend loyalty beyond the web. with hard drives providing bigger storage users could need more help to locate important files such as photos. the desktop search technology has been licensed from a us-based firm x1 technologies. it is designed to work alongside microsoft s outlook and outlook express e-mail programs. searching e-mail effectively is becoming increasingly important especially as the amount of spam increases. according to research from message analysts the radicati group up to 45% of businesses critical information is stored in e-mail and attachments. yahoo s software can also work separately on the desktop searching for music photos and other files. users can search under a variety of criteria including file name size date and time. it doesn t yet incorporate web searching although yahoo has promised that future versions will allow users to search both web-based and desktop data. we are all getting more and more files on our desktop but the real commercial opportunity lies with linking this through to web content said julian smith an analyst with research firm jupiter. it is all about extending the idea of search and getting a closer relationship with consumers by organising not just how they search on the internet but the files on your computer as well he said. search engines are often the first port of call for users when they go onto the web. the new foray into desktop search has rung alarm bells for human rights groups concerned about the implications to privacy. and not everyone is impressed with the functionality of such services. alexander linden vice president of emerging technologies at analyst firm gartner downloaded the google product but has since removed it. it was just not very interesting he said. he believes the rush to enter the desktop business is just a way of keeping up with rivals. desktop search is just one of many features people would like but i m suspicious of its usefulness he said. more useful would be tools that can combine internet intranet and desktop search alongside improvements to key word searching he said.

Science_and_Techology

hodges announces rugby retirement scarlets and usa eagles forward dave hodges has ended his playing career to pursue a coaching role in the states. the 36-year-old who has 54 caps was llanelli s player of the season in 2001/2 but has battled injury for the last two of his seven years at stradey. he tore a pectoral muscle against the ospreys on boxing day an injury that would have kept him out for the season. realising i would be unable to play this season the club and i agreed to end my contract early said hodges. it allows me to move back to the us and pursue opportunities there and allows the scarlets to look to the next generation. the scarlets have begun to rebuild their squad for next season after a disappointing heineken cup campaign with plenty more signings and departures expected in the coming weeks. scarlets chief executive stuart gallacher confirmed that 17 of the current squad would be out of contract in the summer. we have a deliberate policy whereby around half the squad are coming out of contract and they know they won t all be re-signed it s a chance to invigorate the squad he said. i m positive about the future of the scarlets both on and off the field. gallacher was keen to pay tribute to the role back-five forward hodges has played at stradey park though. david has been a highly influential member of our squad for seven years said gallacher. he is a real professional and we thank him for the part he has played in our success. i am sure he has an enormous contribution to make to the development of rugby in the us and we wish him and his family well. hodges described his years at stradey as the best time of my life.

Sports

us state acts to stop spammers us state texas has filed a lawsuit against two men believed to be among the world s top five spammers. it is seeking millions of dollars in damages in a civil lawsuit filed earlier this week. the texas attorney general said it started the legal action as messages sent by the alleged spammers broke three laws governing e-mail marketing. the company named in the lawsuit denied any wrongdoing and said it complied with all relevant laws. the texas lawsuit was filed against ryan samuel pitylak a university oftexas student and mark stephen trotter of california. both are thought to be the top executives in three companies - payperaction llc. leadplex llc. and leadplex inc - that are suspected of sending out many millions of unwanted e-mail messages. illegal spam must be stopped said greg abbott texas attorney general announcing the legal action. spam is one of the most aggravating and pervasive problems facing consumers today. the attorney general alleges that messages sent by mr pitylak and mr trotter s companies broke the 2003 controlling the assault of non-solicited pornography and marketing act (can-spam) as well as the texas electronic mail and solicitation act and texas deceptive trade practices act. all three acts confer cash penalties for each violation of their terms. if the men are found guilty and all penalties are applied the two men could face a damages bill running into millions. mr abbott said the messages sent by the pair broke laws by using misleading subject lines not identifying themselves as adverts and offering services for which they had no licence to do so in texas. lawyers for the alleged spammers said the lawsuit was groundless and the two men would defend themselves strongly against the accusations. leadplex and payperaction are legitimate internet marketing companies that are in complete compliance with the federal can-spam act said lin hughes speaking on behalf of mr pitylak and mr trotter. in a similar move the us federal trade commission (ftc) has won a court order that stops an international group of spammers sending sexually explicit e-mail. the ftc took the action because the messages being sent violated several parts of the can-spam act. in particular the pornographic messages did not identify themselves as being sexually explicit had deceptive subject headings did not have working opt-out mechanisms failed to mention they were adverts and did not give the sender s real world address. the court order stops the spammers sending e-mail and freezes assets prior to a hearing on a permanent injunction.

Science_and_Techology

paris promise raises welsh hopes has there been a better six nations match than saturday s epic in paris and can the welsh revival continue all the way to a first grand slam since 1978 those are the two questions occupying not just wales supporters but rugby fans as a whole after a scintillating display in paris. welsh legend mervyn davies a member of two of three grand slam-winning sides of the 1970s hailed it as one of the great performances of the past three decades . martyn williams wales two-try scorer on the day called it one of the most surreal games i have ever played in . a crestfallen france coach bernard laporte simply observed: there was a french half and there was a welsh half . and what a half it was for the red dragonhood transforming a 15-6 half-time deficit into an 18-15 lead within five mesmerising minutes of the second period. but while that passage of play showed the swelling self-belief of a side prepared to back its own spirit of adventure the final quarter told us a whole lot more about this welsh side. that they recovered from a battering in the first half-hour to first stem the tide before half-time then reverse it on the resumption was remarkable enough. but in resisting a seemingly unstoppable wave of french pressure in a nail-biting final five minutes wales showed not only their physical attributes but their mental resolve. in international rugby any of the top seven sides can beat each other on a given day but the great sides are those that win the close contests on a consistent basis. england suffered some infamous six nations disappointments en route to world cup glory the pain of defeat forging bonds that ultimately led to victory when it really mattered. wales have some way to go before they can be remotely considered in a similar light. but the signs are that players previously on the receiving end are learning how to emerge on the right side of the scoreline. ten of the 22 on duty on saturday were also involved when wales were trounced 33-5 in paris two years ago. but since they threw off the shackles against new zealand in the 2003 world cup wales have rediscovered much of what made them a great rugby nation in the first place. the confidence in the squad has been building and building since the world cup and we now have young players who are becoming world class noted coach mike ruddock. the likes of michael owen gethin jenkins dwayne peel and gavin henson are certainly building strong cases for inclusion on this summer s lions tour to new zealand. and players like stephen jones martyn williams shane williams and gareth thomas are proving it is not only the youngsters that are on an upward curve. jones after his superb man-of-the-match display observed that we are a very happy camp now . ruddock and thomas can take much of the credit for that ensuring the tribal and regional divisions that have often scarred welsh rugby do not extend to the national squad. the joie de vivre so evident in that magical second-half spell in paris also stems from a style of play that first wooed supporters the world over in the 1970s. if england had half the innate attacking exuberance wales have produced in this championship they would not be contemplating the debris of three consecutive defeats. similarly wales have learnt that style alone does not win matches and that forward power mental toughness and good decision-making under pressure are equally important. so on to murrayfield where wales have not won on their last three visits. while the hype in the principality will go into overdrive the players will set about the task of beating scotland. only then - with the visit of ireland to finish - can they start thinking about emulating the hallowed players of the 1970s and writing their own names into welsh legend.

Sports

yukos accused of lying to court russian oil firm yukos lied to a us court in an attempt to stop the russian government selling off its key production unit the court has heard. the unit yugansk was sold to pay off a $27.5bn (£14.5bn) back tax bill. yukos argued that since it had a us subsidiary and local bank accounts the us court could declare it bankrupt and stop the auction of yugansk. but deutsche bank - itself a target of a yukos lawsuit - said documents had been backdated to strengthen the case. deutsche bank s evidence came on the first day of a two-day hearing in houston. its lawyer hugh ray told the court that yukos had claimed it had transferred $27m into two texas bank accounts opened by its new us subsidiary. by doing so he said the firm had intended to reinforce its us presence - and thus its chances of getting its case heard in us courts. but he said that the papers documenting the transaction were not drawn up till weeks after yukos made its bankruptcy application on 14 december and then backdated. yukos chief financial officer bruce misamore who had moved to the us in early december to set up yukos usa acknowledged the point. he said the discrepancy was only in the paperwork but that money had indeed been transferred on 14 december. even so he told the court that only $480 000 had been in the accounts that day with the rest arriving a day later. deutsche bank is involved in the case because it is itself being sued by yukos. it had agreed to loan to an arm of russian state gas firm gazprom the money to bid for yuganskneftegaz as the yukos unit is formally known. the sale went ahead despite an order from the us bankruptcy court ordered that it should be stopped. in the end the auction was won by an unknown shell company for $9.4bn - much less than most assessments of its value - before ending up in the hands of state-controlled oil firm rosneft. rosneft meanwhile has agreed to merge with gazprom bringing a large chunk of russia s very profitable oil business back under state control. yukos maintains that it filed for bankruptcy in the us because it feared it would not be able to do so in russia. it also said that in the event of going bust it could offer the chance of restructuring. it gives us a kind of life after death alternative said yukos chief executive steven theede. yukos is currently suing four companies - gazprom its unit gazpromneft rosneft and the shell company which won the bidding - for their part in yugansk s disposal. it has also threatened to sue the russian government for $28bn. analysts have questioned whether a us court has any jurisdiction over russian companies while moscow officials have dismissed yukos legal wrangling as meaningless. yukos claims that the rights of its shareholders have been ignored and that is has been punished for the political ambitions of its founder mikhail khodorkovsky. mr khodorkovsky once russia s richest man is in prison having been charged with fraud and tax evasion and repeatedly denied bail.

Business

fresh hope after argentine crisis three years after argentina was hit by a deadly economic crisis there is fresh hope. the country s economy is set to grow about 8% this year after seeing 9% growth last year a sharp turnaround from 2002 when output fell 11%. the unemployment rate is improving too: it is set to slip below 13% by the end of the year down from 20% in may 2002. true problems remain but the overall picture is one of vast improvement. even the international monetary fund (imf) admits this. the argentine authorities are proud should be proud of the strong performance of the economy thomas dawson an imf director said earlier this month. argentina has made a remarkable recovery from a hideous and lengthy recession which in 2001 culminated in the government halting debt repayments to its private creditors. the debt default sparked a deep and prolonged economic crisis which at least initially was made worse by the government s decisions. pension payments were halted and bank accounts frozen as part of austerity measures introduced by the government to deal with the country s massive debts. in response angry crowds of ordinary argentines took to the streets where dozens of lives were lost in clashes with the police. two presidents and at least three finance minister resigned in less than a month. argentina was on the brink of collapse. the fix was found in the currency markets with the abandonment of the peso s decade-long peg to the us dollar in february 2002. the subsequent devaluation saw thousands of people s life savings disappear. scathes of companies went bust. three years ago every sector [of the economy] was hit by the crisis said entrepreneur drayton valentine. it really was dire. but since then the general mood on the ground has improved dramatically in part because the devaluation helped attract fresh direct investment from abroad and stimulate business within brazil. agriculture and tourism are helping said entrepreneur drayton valentine. mr valentine who was born in the united states but grew up in argentina was fortunate: at the time of the crisis his savings were held in dollar accounts abroad. but now he is using his money to help with the start-up a trading company. he explained that initially his firm is going to export building materials to spain and united states. then he would like to diversify to other areas depending on the market. locally there is a sense of recovery many companies are exporting now he said noting that a lot of firms which were closed during the crisis are re-opening. but not all that shines is gold. argentina is still burdened by its failure to pay private creditors at the end of 2001. president nestor kirchner s administration is still trying to hammer out an agreement with the creditors but with the debts nominal value standing at around $100bn it is not proving easy. debt defaults make further lending agreements both difficult and expensive to negotiate. argentina s current offer implies that the creditors would get just 25 cents for each dollar they are owed according to the creditors. understandably they want more and until they do both they and others are loath to continue lending. for president kirchner this proves a hopeless challenge. real losses have been suffered and somebody has to pay observed jack boorman adviser to imf s managing director rodrigo rato. everyone needs to keep in mind the enormous cost on the part of both creditors and the argentine society and people that will have been endured by the time a settlement is reached he said. the cost is enormous and continues to be paid and will not be reversed by any restructuring. with the international negotiations being troubled it is of little help to president kirchner that the domestic situation remains strained as well. this is partly because there are still bank account holders who are waiting to recover some of their deposits. the situation is bad for those who had previously chosen to save in argentina said carlos baez silva president of aara an association that represents bank account and bond holders. few people have recovered more than about half their savings mr baez silva estimated pointing out that many of the savers who have lost out are pensioners or others who once trusted the government people who set aside money for the future in the belief that their investment would be safe. a lot of them invested in good faith he said. the argentine state responded by taking most of their investments. the affair has made mr baez silva disillusioned with the country s legal system. on occasion the supreme court has ruled against the interests of the people he represents he says insisting that the system cannot be trusted. people have to deposit their money in the banks not necessarily because they trust them but because crime is so high that people cannot have their money in their homes beneath their mattresses. mr valentine who was born in the united states but grew up in argentina agreed. if i have to save pesos [the local currency] there is not much problem but i will think twice before i deposit dollars in a bank .

Business

us trade gap ballooned in october the us trade deficit widened by more than expected in october hitting record levels after higher oil prices raised import costs figures have shown the trade shortfall was $55.5bn (£29bn) up 9% from september the commerce department said. that pushed the 10 month deficit to $500.5bn. imports rose by 3.4% while exports increased by only 0.6%. a weaker dollar also increased the cost of imports though this should help drive export demand in coming months. things are getting worse but that s to be expected said david wyss of standard & poor s in new york. the first thing is that when the dollar goes down it increases the price of imports. we are seeing improved export orders. things seem to be going in the right direction. despite this optimism significant concerns remain as to how the us will fund its trade and budget deficits should they continue to widen. another problem highlighted by analysts was the growing trade gap with china which has been accused of keeping its currency artificially weak in order to boost exports. the us imported almost $20bn worth of goods from china during october exporting a little under $3bn. it seems the key worry that has existed in the currency market still remains said anthony crescenzi a bond strategist at miller tabak in new york. the trade deficit and the shortfall with china are big issues going forward . the commerce department figures caused the dollar to weaken further despite widespread expectations that the federal reserve will raise interest rates for a fifth time this year. borrowing costs are tipped to rise by a quarter of a percentage point to 2.25% at a fed meeting later on tuesday.

Business

barcelona title hopes hit by loss barcelona s pursuit of the spanish title took a blow on sunday as they fell to a 2-0 defeat at home to atletico madrid. fernando torres gave athletico an ideal start with a goal in the first minute. ronaldino wasted a second-half chance to equalise for barca when he put a penalty wide but torres made no such mistake with a last-minute spot-kick. the defeat coupled with real madrid s 4-0 win over espanyol on saturday reduces barca s lead to four points. former everton midfielder thomas gravesen scored his first goal for real in the comfortable victory at the bernabeu. zinedine zidane had opened the scoring before raul bagged a brace. gravesen who replaced zidane completed the scoring in the 84th minute with a low shot. david beckham watched by sven-goran eriksson came off in the 67th minute with a shoulder injury but should be fit for england s game against holland. england team-mate michael owen came on for raul after 76 minutes with the game already won. real have now won six consecutive primera liga games since coach wanderley luxemburgo took charge.

Sports

gardener wins double in glasgow britain s jason gardener enjoyed a double 60m success in glasgow in his first competitive outing since he won 100m relay gold at the athens olympics. gardener cruised home ahead of scot nick smith to win the invitational race at the norwich union international. he then recovered from a poor start in the second race to beat swede daniel persson and italy s luca verdecchia. his times of 6.61 and 6.62 seconds were well short of american maurice greene s 60m world record of 6.39secs from 1998. it s a very hard record to break but i believe i ve trained very well said the world indoor champion who hopes to get closer to the mark this season. it was important to come out and make sure i got maximum points. my last race was the olympic final and there was a lot of expectation. this was just what i needed to sharpen up and get some race fitness. i m very excited about the next couple of months. double olympic champion marked her first appearance on home soil since winning 1500m and 800m gold in athens with a victory. there was a third success for britain when edged out russia s olga fedorova and sweden s jenny kallur to win the women s 60m race in 7.23secs. maduaka was unable to repeat the feat in the 200m finishing down in fourth as took the win for russia. and the 31-year-old also missed out on a podium place in the 4x200m relay as the british quartet came in fourth with russia setting a new world indoor record. there was a setback for jade johnson as she suffered a recurrence of her back injury in the long jump. russia won the meeting with a final total of 63 points with britain second on 48 and france one point behind in third. led the way for russia by producing a major shock in the high jump as he beat olympic champion stefan holm into second place to end the swede s 22-event unbeaten record. won the triple jump with a leap of 16.87m with britain s tosin oke fourth in 15.80m. won the men s pole vault competition with a clearance of 5.65m with britain s nick buckfield 51cm adrift of his personal best in third. and won the women s 800m with britain s jenny meadows third. there was yet another russian victory in the women s 400m as finished well clear of britain s catherine murphy. chris lambert had to settle for fourth after fading in the closing stages of the men s 200m race as sweden s held off leslie djhone of france. france s won the men s 400m with brett rund fourth for britain. took victory for sweden in the women s 60m hurdles ahead of russia s irina shevchenko and britain s sarah claxton who set a new personal best. italy grabbed their first victory in the men s 1500m as kicked over the last 200 metres to hold off britain s james thie and france s alexis abraham. a botched changeover in the 4x200m relay cost britain s men the chance to add further points as france claimed victory.

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